Let It Be
by mindmischief
Summary: River Holden survived the initial outbreak with her twin brother, Taylor. For months, it has been just them. Since they couldn't find their other siblings. But when a hunting accident happens, they come across a group of survivors where they find someone they know. Will being welcomed into the fold be worth all the trouble and heartbreak that comes with it? Daryl/OFC Beth/OMC
1. Chapter One: Lights Out

Maybe I could just give up. You know... just let it be. Throw my hands up in the air, fall to my knees and yell to whatever God there may be that would do this to us. I would simply stop caring, stop hunting, stop eating and most importantly, stop defending myself. It would be so easy. So much easier than trying to survive. It would be just like fading away. And on some days, that seemed okay to me.

This thought has crossed my mind many times before now. If I slowed down, even just a little, I'd be dead in a matter of moments. It wouldn't be a fast death either. It would be slow and painful. Maybe it's the pounding of my heart in my ears that's blocking out the sounds of certain death that makes all this negativity floating around my mind not so scary. But then again, my idea of what is scary has drastically changed over the last few months.

I can see the exit sign at the end of the hallway now. Dead ahead. It's no longer illuminated. No electricity to be found here. The axe swings a bit harder as I try to get my legs to move faster. But it's impossible. The lack of food and sleep have taken a toll of my physical strength. Not to even mention my emotional state. If I make it out of this door alive, we'll be good on food for a while. And even if I don't, my death should allow Taylor enough time to get the food and get out safely. At least I can go knowing my death will not be in vain.

But I'm not giving up yet.

I don't dare steal a glance behind me. I keep my eyes ahead. With the situation at hand it'd be a deadly mistake but with the weight I'm carrying, I would die surely. They were too close to make one wrong move. One hand held a large axe, in the other was an industrial sized garbage bag full of canned foods and pasta; on my back was my entire means of life reduced down to simply a backpack and on my feet, my home. Literally. I was easily carrying my own weight and then some.

Fifteen feet in front of me now. Almost there. I can't will myself to move any faster. Ten feet. I can see Taylor peering through the small slant that's the glass window in the metal double doors as he yanks it open. I can see he's yelling and waving towards me to come on, willing me to safety. But I hear nothing.

Three feet. I muster up the strength to sling the bag as hard as I can. It lands with a thump and slides as it hits the pavement outside of the doors in the safety of the daylight. Taylor is ready to slam the door as soon as I'm out of the way. Now that some of the extra weight is off of me, I feel myself moving faster.

When I break through into the sunlight, I hear the door slam behind me and I'm already in mid-turn, ax raised, ready for battle. But it was not necessary. Taylor was already shoving a large metal pipe through the door handles. I rushed forward, slipping off my backpack as I approached.

I sat down my ax as I knelled and felt around blindly in the pack. To my right, Taylor fiddled with a lock on a long line of heavy chain ensnared around the handles as the doors started being pushed against and the groans of the dead I had blocked out before started to fill my ears.  
>It would seem ridiculous in the old world how calm and collected we were after all that. And it was, actually.<p>

I walk to his side. We both stared blankly at the door as the corpses groan and push with all their might to get at us. I feel his hand on my back; Taylor always tried to make a simple touch comforting... and somehow he could for me.

I handed him the can I had dug out of my sack.

He nodded and stepped forward as he shook up its contents without a word.

A few moments later, in the place of where there once was a blank grey double door, a door that children once passed through without a care in the world, stood a door that held an ominous warning.

_**BEEN RAIDED. DEAD INSIDE. DO NO ENTER.**_

My brother stole a glance back at the bag and then to me.  
>With a smile and a kiss on my forehead, he said "G'job sis."<p>

This was our life now. This is what my brother and I did to survive. We raided stores, schools, markets, pharmacies... anywhere that may contain something essential to our survival. We camped outdoors, slept strapped high in trees or in abandoned homes and various buildings, hunted, fished, collected water... it was basic living. But it was living. I had killed to survive. He had killed to survive. Every breath we took was because of someone else's last, no matter how that last breath was taken. And our body count would only rise in our wake the longer we were breathing. It was inevitable.

My name is River Holden and I survived the zombie apocalypse. Well, so far at least.

It had been 92 days since the out break. At first it seemed like just a viral out break of some kind... nothing serious. We've had out breaks before, right? Who would've thought they would see something even the government couldn't handle, that sent the world into ruins, in their lifetime?

My brother and I had watched the news intently when it was apparent this was no ordinary event. We watched the events unfold, the world fall to pieces and crumble before our eyes.

When we had exhausted all our resources at home, we packed what we could, left what we couldn't, and moved on without a look back. Our father had been adamant about us knowing how to shoot and hunt. Thankfully, because in the new world, this is what kept us alive.  
>Today started like any other day. We had been fortunate enough to come across a chicken coop full of chickens that had survived, so for the first time in a long time, we had scrambled eggs for breakfast. Granted it was paired with squirrel.<p>

We had done all we could around the camp site and had decided to hunt the woods nearby since we just relocated to this spot the day prior. We continuously had to relocate due to numerous factors... herds passing through, exhausting resources, hunting to woods clean... it was frustrating at times.

My brother and I made an excellent pair at hunting. Though we both preferred to do it alone, we normally accompanied each other because it was better to not be alone in the woods unless necessary.

I strolled through the woods with ease. Barely any noise was made between the two of us. I had my bow raised and ready; a Beretta, hunting knife and tomahawk hung from my waist, another knife in my boot. This wasn't uncommon anymore.

The sun hung high in the Georgia sky. It's heat baring down on us with no mercy. But the dense woods shielded us from it's rays. The wildlife seemed to be unconcerned with the state of the world. The birds sang their merry songs without a care. I envied them in a way.  
>I let out a low whistle as I took down a squirrel that was going up a nearby tree. This was our signal to slow down, the tracks were picking up. I bent down and scanned the forest floor for a better assessment. The prints were fresh and we were hot on it's trail. A deer. About medium build by my estimates. I stole a glance back at my brother who nodded. He was about twenty feet behind me. I continued on with a stiff nod in return.<p>

A ways ahead, I stopped and leaned against a tree. I let out a three note tune. This meant I would take the kill. As I peaked around the tree, I spotted the buck. I drew back on my bow, readying myself. I came out from around the tree and aimed, letting my arrow fly. Unfortunately for me, that wasn't the only weapon being discharged in this part of the woods.

It took me a moment to register the sound of the gun shot. I looked ahead and saw two men and a young boy running towards me. The looks on their faces were pure shock. Looking back, I saw my brother's horrified face. He was yelling something but I couldn't make it out. Nothing was making sense. Why were they all so worried? It was just a damn deer. I felt myself lose control of my hands and drop my bow onto the ground. Curious as to why this had happened, I looked down. That's when I saw the growing red patch of blood on my tank top. Without meaning to, I fell to my knees as the men reached me.

"Back up!" I heard my brother yell as he closed in on us. His glock raised and ready to kill.

"We didn't mean to! We were hunting the same deer! I told my son to take the shot, and he missed. We didn't know anyone else was out here." The man in the sheriff's uniform explained quickly.

The young boy stood back away from me. The look on his face was pitiful. I felt sorry for him. He looked like he was about to burst into tears.

I felt my breath become as ragged and distressed as the look on my brother's face.

The other man with a cross bow draped over this shoulder knelt down in front of me. "C'mon, we gotta camp close by 'nd a doctor."

He picked me up and everything faded to black.


	2. Chapter Two: We Stay

My eyes fluttered open to see the bright noon sun pouring through the sheer white curtains. They fluttered carelessly in the summer breeze that came in through the open window. I let out a small sigh as I adjusted myself in the bed._Wait... bed?_ And then reality dawned on me. _Where the fuck am I?_

Sitting up suddenly, I immediately yelped in pain. Falling back down onto the bed, I clutched my side and let out a groan. The sharp stinging pain making my eyes water.

I heard the bedroom door creak open but couldn't force myself to open my eyes for the intense pain. I could only pray they were friendly.

"Better take it easy, Holden." A familiar voice said. "You always were accident prone."

My eyes flew open to see the Korean boy standing there, smiling, with his hands stuffed in his pockets.

"Glenn Rhee?" I whispered in disbelief. A genuine smile crept across my face for the first time in a long time.

"I thought I'd never see you again." He said.

I nodded. "That's the understatement of the year."

He walked over to the bed and sat down next to me, leaning over and hugging me tightly, careful to miss my injured side. As we sat simply embracing each other, the door creaked open again. I looked up to see numerous men file in.

A white haired man made his way to the other side of the bed. Grabbing an old rocking chair and pulling it up beside me, he took a seat.I smiled to myself; he reminded me of my late grandfather.

"How are you feeling?" He asked.

"Like I was shot." I joked. "Where is my brother?"

"He's lying down in one of the extra rooms. He had to give blood since you'd lost so much. My name is Herschel Greene and this is my farm. Rick, Carl and Daryl over here are the ones who were in the woods and brought you back. And I see you already know Glenn here." He nodded to the boy sitting next to me and smiled. "The bullet missed anything vital. Just barely though. Any further over and it would have hit your liver. But as I said, you've lost a lot of blood. I've given you antibiotics and pain medication, which I suggest you keep taking for the next few days as you rest. The stitches will come out in a few days as well."

"Thank you. I said with a sigh of relief.

"I'm Rick Grimes." The man in the sheriff's uniform said. I vaguely remembered his face before I had blacked out. "This is my son, Carl. And this here is Daryl Dixon." He nodded to the man beside him. "I'm very sorry for what happened. Y'all are very silent hunters. We had no idea you were out there."

"It's okay. No apologies needed, things happen." I said to the man. "Thank you for bringing me back and patching me up. Not many people would do that anymore."

"It's the least we could do. Glenn here says you went to school together in Atlanta." Rick continued.

"Yeah, we went to school together from elementary all the way through high school. He was my junior prom date as well." I explained.

The man with the crossbow -Daryl- laughed lightly.

"What?" Glenn asked, turning around to look at the man curiously.

"Nuthin' China Man." He replied.

"Everyone was too scared to ask River to the dance because they were all afraid of her older brothers. Particularly Taylor. He's very protective of his sister. "So, she asked me to go with her. We were good friends and neighbors since we were young."

I smiled brightly at the memories his face brought back to me. Memories of a world long gone.

"My daughter, Maggie, will bring you some lunch. I'm going to go check on your brother." Herschel said, patting my hand before he stood. "You take it easy. I'll send your medicine with her as well."

"Would it be okay if I took my lunch outside?" I asked hopefully.

"I don't see why not. But take it slow. Don't want you pullin' any stitches." Herschel replied before walking out of the room.

"Daryl will go get your bag. We'll let you get a shower and change." Rick explained.

"A shower?!" I practically shouted, my eyes widening in shock.

"Yes." He laughed. "A real shower."

With that, the two men and the little boy took their leave. Glenn smiled as he watched them leave before turning back to me, placing a hand on my shoulder. "They're good people. I'm sure you and Taylor will find your place in our group. I'd love it if you'd stay. I'll wait for you on the porch."

I nodded in reply as he stood up from the bed and left the room. Just a moment later, the door opened once again. This time a young girl I guessed to be about my age, with short brown hair and a smile that could light up a room, entered.

"Hi there. How ya feelin'?" She asked with a smile. Her southern accent was thick as syrup.

"Alright for someone who got shot." I replied. "You must be Maggie."

"That's me. And you're Glenn's old classmate, River." She chuckled. "I already met your brother. He's a charmer. I brought you some clothes, U had to throw away the ones you arrived in and I wasn't sure if you had anymore or not. They had to cut them off you and they were soaked in blood. We looked to be about the same size, minus the height, so I brought some of mine in case you could use them."

She laid the clothes down on the bedside table as once again, the door opened. Daryl walked over and plopped my backpack down at the foot of the bed.

"'Ere ya go. You'll get'cher weapons back when we decide yer notta threat." He explained before turning and leaving without another word.

"A real social butterfly, huh?" I said, looking at the door he;d just closed behind him.

"You ain't lyin'." She chuckled. "Do you need help outta bed?"

"No. But thank you." I said as I shoved the covers off of me.

"I'll have your lunch ready and waiting for you." She said before taking her leave as well.

I took a moment to process everything that had just happened and looked around the room. It was small and what you would imagine a typical farm house spare bedroom to look like. The walls were white and the four poster bed sat in the middle of the room. A set of white cotton sheets and a patchwork quilt made up the bed. Directly across from the foot of the bed was a small fire place. It looked to be non-functioning. At least for a very long time. It was quaint and cozy. I slipped off the bed onto the cool hardwood floors as I thought of how truly lucky I was. Had one thing gone awry, I could be dead. But yet here I was, safe and sound, my brother was alive and well, and I'd found a good friend I had never thought I'd see again.

I cast my eyes down to the floor with a small smile. It was then that I realized I was only in a large white T-shirt that hung down to just above my knees.

To the right was a small door that lead into the bathroom. It was small and had a stand up shower only in it.

I closed the door behind me and sat my backpack on the back of the toilet. Turning the faucet , I found myself smiling as I let the water flow over my hand. Giddy with the idea of a real shower, I stripped down as quickly as possible and jumped in. I let out a groan as I leaned back into the warm running water. It felt as though the steam and water was washing all my troubles away. I poured some shampoo in my hand and began washing my hair, feeling like a new person as I did. I quickly scrubbed the dirt and blood off my body and face before I just took a moment to just stand in the cascade of warmth, soaking up the feeling since I was unsure when I'd ever get another.

With a heavy heart, I turned off the faucet and stepped out. I grabbed the towel that sat on the sink and dried off. When I wiped the mist off the mirror, I almost gasped.

I hadn't seen myself void of dirt, grime and blood in so long it almost took my breath away to see my face without it. I ran my fingers gently over my cheeks as I examined myself, remembering when I would meticulously care for my skin and take time daily to put on makeup. It seemed like a lifetime ago. My bright green eyes scanned over every feature, as if I had to remind myself of what I had once looked like. My eyes, though bright, held a almost permanent sleepy state to them. I guess that's what months of sleeping with one eye open will do to a person. My long deep red hair faded into a blonde on the tips and fell well past my shoulder in loose, full curls. My skin was tanned due to constantly being out in the sun. I trailed a finger over the freckles that lightly spotted my nose and cheeks just below my eyes; they always stood out more when I would go out in the sun, mainly in the summer. I watched as my lips involuntarily curled up into a small smile.

Rummaging through my backpack, I found a pair of cut off blue jean shorts, a slightly large white T-shirt that hung off one shoulder and a fresh pair of underwear and socks.

When I was dressed, I found my hairbrush and toothbrush and brushed my hair and teeth. I found my brown boots sitting next to the door. After lacing them up, I took one last look at myself in the large mirror that hung over the fire place. Deciding I wanted my hair up, I braided it to one side and headed outside.

I found Glenn in one of the old rocking chairs on the right side of the porch when I walked out in the blistering Georgian heat. He held an acoustic guitar and was staring absentmindedly out into the yard. As I scanned the area, I was shocked to see quite a few people. I hadn't seen this many people since all this started. Well, people that were alive, at least.

"When did you pick up the guitar?" I asked, taking a seat in the empty rocking chair next to him.

"I haven't." He laughed, patting the guitar. "Dale found it on the highway and gave it to me. Wanna play?"

"Nah, I won't make anyone's ears bleed today." I said with a wave.

Hearing the screen door creak, I turned to see Taylor emerging fromt he old farm house. Without a word, I shot up quickly and wrapped my arms around him.

"Oh my God, I thought I lost you." He sighed into my hair. "Don't you ever scare me like that."

I hugged him tight, unsure of what to say. I could feel the sting of tears threatening to escape. I knew if I spoke now, they'd come flooding out. I had always been close to my brother, he was my twin for goodness sake, but since the outbreak, we had become each other's rock. The reason the other kept the will to survive. We had many close calls over the last few months, but this took the lead.

He pulled away and looked down at me. We had the same bright green eyes and deep red hair; his was shaggy and unruly and came down tot he nape of his neck.

He smiled and cupped my face in his hands, rubbing his thumbs over my cheeks. "Don't you dare get shot again."

I laughed and nodded. "I don't plan on it."

The door creaked again as Maggie came out onto the porch, plate in hand.

"You look like you feel a lot better." She smiled. "Here's your sandwich."

"Thanks." I smiled.

"Yeah, thanks Maggie." Glenn said suddenly, his voice slightly shaky.

I glanced over at him and narrowed my eyes.

"Well, no wonder the redneck wanted to save you." A man said.

I turned my attention to see the dark haired man propped up against the railing by the stairs, eyeing me up and down, with a stupid grin on his face. Taylor let out a heavy sigh and stepped forward in front of me. I stood up and quickly moved in front of him, placing my hand on his chest. I eyed him letting him know to let it go. We were guests here... Taylor beating up one of their own would no go over well. And I knew Taylor's temper rivaled my own.

"Who is this? Your bodyguard?" He chuckled.

"I believe "the redneck's" name is Daryl. And you are?" I siad with as much disgust as I could muster in my voice.

"Yeah, Daryl." He laughed. "I'm Shane. I was on the force with Rick... I was the deputy." The smug smile crept across his face.

"Deputy Dumbo, got it." i nodded as Glenn stifled a laugh. "I'm River, this is my brother, Taylor."

He nodded. "I'll be seeing you around."

I watched in disgust as he sauntered off, clearly impressed with himself.

"What a tool." I sighed.

"You ain't lyin'." Glenn said in agreement.

"I'm gonna end up killing him." Taylor grumbled.

I chuckled and returned to my seat beside Glenn and picked up my sandwich.

"And you..." I said before taking a bite.

"Me what?" Glenn said hastily, placing his guitar down beside him.

"I saw the way you were looking at her... making sure you got a word in too." I said with a wiggle of my eyebrows.

"Who?" Taylor asked.

"Maggie" I said at the exact same time Glenn shouted "No one!"

"No, no guys." Glenn protested. "She's Herschel's daughter..."

"So?" Taylor said, propping up against the railing and crossing his arms.

"So..." Glenn trailed off.

"Exactly." I laughed.

After a little while of catching up and finishing my lunch, Maggie came out of the house again.

"Would you like to meet everyone?" She asked. "We won't walk far so you don't over do it with your injury."

"We'd love that." I smiled. "Glenn, you wanna come along with us?"

Glenn shot me a look that could've killed before he spoke. "No, I should go help Dale witht he caravan."

"Suit yourself." I shrugged and winked at him as I stood up.

"Lead the way, dear." Taylor said to Maggie.

We followed her down the stairs and across the yard. The farm was huge. The lush fields seemed to stretch on forever, only ending by the lining of thick woods. The whole place felt like home. I envied these people for finding such a haven in a cruel unforgiving world.

As we approached a group of people, I felt my nerves begin to peak. I wasn't much of a people person. I could fake niceties and such, but not without the desire to run away as fast as I could, as soon as I could. Taylor seemed to sense my tension and placed a hand on my back.

"Guys, this is River and her brother, Taylor. This is Lori, Rick's wife, you met their son, Carl. That's T-Dog and that's Carol." Maggie said, pointing to each person as she introduced them.

"Very nice to meet you all." I said with a small smile.

Taylor nodded but didn't speak.

"I'm glad to see you're doing better." The gray haired woman, Carol, said. Her smile reminded me of my mother's when I was young. At least what I could remember of it. But just like my own mother, I could see the sadness and pain she was trying so desperately to hide behind it.

"Thank you, me too." I replied.

"How are you feeling?" Lori asked, looking up from the shirt she was patching up.

"Sore, but I'll live." I shrugged.

"Is Rick letting y'all stay with us?" T-Dog questioned.

"I'm not sure. We haven't really talked about it." I told him in all honesty.

I hadn't gave our stay much thought until then. Glenn had mentioned us staying but I had assumed once I had healed, we'd be on our way. Back to what we knew as life now.

"Well, we hope so." Carol said with a smile.

I nodded and returned the smile as Maggie spoke. "I'll be back in a while with some more clothes, I'm gonna introduce them to the rest of the group."

We said our goodbye's and nice to meet you's and followed the brown haired girl across the way towards the caravan that was parked between the trees, looking out over the large field.

Glenn stood beside a gray haired man, hunched over the open hood. He looked up and smiled, nudging the man beside him.

The man smiled, wiping the grease off his hands with a dirty rag, and walked over to meet us; Glenn close behind.

He stuck out his hand for me to take. "I'm Dale."

"River." I said and shook his hand with another forced smile.

"Taylor." My brother said as he offered the man his own hand.

"I hear you two went to school with Glenn." He said.

"Yes, we were neighbors as well." I told him.

"That's Andrea up there." Maggie said as she pointed to the blonde woman sitting on a lawn chair on top of the caravan, rifle in hand.

"Hello." Andrea called with a small wave.

"How are you feeling?" Dale asked, nodding towards my side.

"Pretty good for someone who got shot." I said.

"Well, take it easy. Glad to see you up and about." He said with a smile. He turned and made his way back to his spot under the hood.

"Like everyone so far?" Glenn asked, shifting nervously from foot to foot.

"Yeah, champ." I smiled, trying not to laugh at him.

Glenn had always been a quiet guy in school. Though he ran with me and Taylor, two well known troublemakers and nicknamed "the mouths of the south" by our fifth grade teacher, he was the voice of reason a lot of times for us. He saved us from so many months of groundings by talking us out of silly pranks. How we were such good friends baffled me sometimes.

"Good, good." He stuffed his hand in his pockets and looked around. "Guess I better get back..."

"Yeah, you need to finally figure out how to do more than Google how to change a tire." I laughed.

He narrowed his eyes at me and shook his head before making his way back over to Dale.

"Only people left are my family." Maggie said. "C'mon, they're in the house. I'm sure you need to rest and I'll get ya a glass of peach tea."

"That sounds great." I said. "My side is screamin' at me."

As we made our way intot he house, Maggie gestured towards the couch. "Have a seat. I'll get your drinks."

"Thanks." Taylor muttered.

I slipped down onto the ancient couch and clutched my side. All the walking had probably been a mistake but I wasn't about to be stuck in a bed with people catering to me like a child.

"Hurtin'?" Taylor asked, leaning forward to look at me better. He always knew when I was lying somehow by my facial expressions.

"Yeah. Over did it a bit, I think." I said through gritted teeth.

Maggie reentered from he kitchen followed by a blonde girl and an older lady.

I watched as I saw Taylor's demeanor changed. I knew that look in his eyes. He thought the blonde was hot. I inwardly rolled my eyes. My brother was well known as a ladies man and apparently event he end of the world wasn't going to change that.

Maggie sat down the glasses in front of us on the old coffee table and took a seat next to me. She held out her hand. "Here's some more antibiotics and pain medicine. Daddy said it's time for you to take them and he wants yout o rest the remainder of the day. This is my sister, Beth, and this is Patricia." She then looked over to the two women. "This is River and Taylor. Patricia helped my Daddy patch you up."

"Thank you. It's very nice to meet you both." I told them with a nod.

Taylor was on his feet before I could ven realize what he was doing. I shook my head as he leaned over the coffee table and took Beth's hand. "It's nice to meet you." He said before turning to offer his hand to Patricia. "Thank you for helping take care of my sister."

I glanced over at Maggie who had the same confused look as her sister.

I lightly cleared my throat as Taylor sat back down. I leaned forward carefully to get my glass of tea and whispered 'Smooth move, Romeo.'

I popped the medicine in my mouth and swallowed them.

"Wow, this peach tea is amazing! Who made it?" I said before taking another sip.

"I did." Beth said with a smile.

"You'll have to show me how you make yours. Mine never turned out this good Not that I'd be able to make it whenever I wanted but it'd be nice to know." I complimented.

"I'd love to." She replied in a cheerful tone.

Just then Rick came into the house. He nodded as a hello to everyone before he spoke.

"Taylor, can I borrow you for a bit? We could use your help." He asked.

"Yeah, man. Of course." He said as he stood up. "I'll be back sis. Make sure she takes it easy."

Maggie nodded. "We'll take good care of her."

I watched as Taylor followed Rick outside. I immediately felt uncomfortable without him beside me.

"So, tell me River. What was Glenn like in school?" Maggie said as soon as the door shut behind the two men.

"You so have a crush!" Beth exclaimed.

"Oh, hush!" It's just a little girl talk." She smiled, her cheeks flushing profusely and telling a completely different story.

Now, I'm not one for girl talk. I had friends that were girls but we weren't the type of girls to indulge in gossip. If that made sense. Even if I did mainly hang out with guys and didn't divulge in gossip with what girlfriends I did have, didn't mean I didn't long for a night of wine, painting toenails and gossip. So I decided to humor the brown haired girl.

"Glenn was very quiet. A good guy, always had good grades. Not much of a ladies man though." I confessed with a chuckle. :One time he wanted to ask one of my girlfriends out. I talked him up to her and took me ages to convince him that she thought he was cute. Well, he decided to go get her some flowers. It never dawned on me that he might do such a thing. So, naturally it didn't occur to me to mention she was highly allergic to roses. Well, you can imagine how that went down."

"Oh, bless his heart." Patricia said as she covered her mouth to stifle a laugh.

"I pictured him as a nerd." Beth said.

"Yeah, he kinda was. But I was too. I was the odd combination of nerd and party girl." I explained. "We use to have Star Wars movie marathon sleep overs."

"Wow." Maggie laughed.

"Yeah, we went as Han Solo and Leia for Halloween one year too." I said with a laugh. "You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd think he might have a crush as well."

Maggie's eyes widened as Beth let out a low whistle and a 'I knew it!'

"But I dunno... I might have to investigate." I winked.

"Oh, no! You do that and I'll have to tell Daryl how you were watching him leave the room after he brought you your bag!" Maggie shot back.

"Was no such thing!" I said defensively. "But he does have some sexy arm muscles, doesn't he?" I wiggled my eyebrows at them and they all laughed.

"Well, I'll leave you girls to it. I better get some supper going." Patricia said as she stood up.

"Oh, please tell me you have something I can do." I pleaded. "I feel so useless."

"You need to rest..." Maggie began as she placed a hand on top of mine.

"Oh, I know. But I could do something! Peel potatoes, cut cucumbers, something simple like that..." I said, trying to persuade them.

"We've got some potatoes you can peel." Beth offered.

"Thank you!" I said as I slowly stood up, placing a hand on my side as the pain become more prominent with my movement. I couldn't wait for that pain medicine to take effect.

I followed the women into the kitchen. Its appliances looked to be from the 1970's and the outdated yellow floral wallpaper only seemed to validate my assumption. But it felt cozy and welcoming.

I sat down at the wooden table as Maggie fetched the potatoes and a bowl and sat them down in front of me. Beth walked over and handed me a kitchen knife and smiled.

For the next hour or so, we sat in the kitchen and talked. I learnt that Maggie and Beth were only half sisters and the group hadn't been on the farm for long at all. A man, Patricia's husband, Otis, had went into the woods one day to hunt and upon shooting a deer, the bullet completely went through it and struck Carl. He hadn't seen the young boy standing there. He had rushed back to the farm, Rick, Shane and the boy in tow, to seek Herschel's help. He'd made a run to town with Shane to collect more medical supplies needed to save Carl's life but hadn't returned, Shane stating he'd made the ultimate sacrifice. I found this quite odd, but said nothing. I also found out some of the gossip of the group. The who's sleeping with who, if you will. Which basically consisted of Lori and Shane. According to Maggie, she had thought Rick had died from what Shane had told her. This only mounted my trepidation of Shane. I was, however, relieved that Daryl wasn't brought up during this particular subject... and why, I had no idea.

Just as supper was about ready, the front door creaked, announcing the presence of someone entering. A moment later, Rick, Taylor, and Daryl entered the kitchen.

"Hey sis." Taylor greeted me, walking over and planting a kiss on top of my head. "How ya feeling?"

"I'm so sick of that-" I stopped mid sentence and let out a cough. "Goodness, you smell to high heaven!"

"I smell of manly-ness." He laughed as he walked over to the sink. "Guess I need a shower, huh?"

"Uh, yeah you do!" I replied with a snort.

"I'll go wash up before we eat. Tomorrow I'm gonna take Rick and Daryl here to our car and get our supplies." he said.

"Awesome. There's a good amount of food in there." I agreed with a nod.

"That's what your brother told us." Rick said, leaning against the door frame. "Said y'all had some more weapons as well."

"Yeah. We were pretty well stocked." I said, looking at the man.

"We'll head out at first light." He said with a nod towards Taylor.

"I glanced over and caught Daryl staring at me. I quickly returned my eyes to my task in front of me. Feeling the heat rise in my cheeks and hoping he hadn't seen me.

After Beth told the men to let everyone know supper would be ready soon, Taylor excused himself to go take a shower. I watched as Beth's eyes followed him out. I glanced over at Maggie who wore a smug smile, obviously noticing what I had as well.

"So, you use to be a sheriff. Huh?" I said to Rick as he sat down across from me. I noticed Daryl out of the corner of my eye; he stood propped against the door frame where Rick had been, arms crossed.

"Yes." He answered with a smile. "What did you and your brother do before all this?"

"I was a nurse at Grady Memorial and owned a photography business on the side. Taylor was an engineer." I explained.

Rick nodded, seemingly impressed. "We could definitely use your skills in this group. Have you thought about what you'd do once your healed?"

"I assumed we'd be on our way." I said.

"Are you heading somewhere?" He asked curiously.

"Nowhere in particular," I said.

"Okay." He nodded and looked down at the table for a moment before looking me in the eyes once more. "I'd like it if you'd consider staying with us."

"Really?" I said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, really." He confirmed. "Daryl and I have already talked about it. But with both of your skills, you'd be excellent assets to this group. What do ya say?"

"I'd have to talk to Taylor... but I think it'd be a great idea." I said with a smile.

"Taylor said the exact same thing." He revealed.

"Oh, he did?" I said, surprised. "Well, I guess that basically answers that, aye?"

With a nod, he stood. "Take it easy. I'll see you at supper."

He walked out of the room as Daryl picked up his crossbow, pausing for a moment to nod to me as well, before following him out.

Maggie quickly took the seat Rick had just vacated and grabbed my hands from across the table. "I'm glad you're staying!" She beamed at me.

"Me too." I said in return and smiled. I genuinely already felt close to the girl sitting across from me.

At supper that evening, I sat in a lawn chair around the fire outside with the group. Maggie sat to my right, having decided to join me instead of dining with her family tonight. Beth sat on the other side of her, having opted to do the same. Taylor sat on my right, scarfing down his food with gusto.

"This is very good, Maggie." He said between bites. "I must say, I miss River's cooking."

"I miss pizza." T-Dog stated with a sad sigh.

"I miss ice cream!" I exclaimed.

The evening passed with ease and light conversation. Everyone in the group seemed nice and easy going. And also very eager for us to spill some childhood dirt about Glenn.

"He wore glasses for reading in elementary school." Taylor said with a laugh. "And he was obsessed with Karate Kid for the longest time."

"A little Ralph Macchio wanna be." I chuckled.

Glenn sighed and put his head in his hands.

"Oh, Rhee! You've got dirt on us too. Dish it out, sugar!" I laughed.

"Okay. River's mom convinced her that her toy stove worked. Every time she'd make spaghetti, she'd put half cooked noodles in the toy pot in place of the uncooked one's when Riv wasn't looking and River would try eating them.""

"Awww." Carol said before laughing.

"I'd eat about half of it and then tell her that hers was better and dump it out. Went on for about a year until she finally broke down and told me because I wanted to try out the stove to make cupcakes for my classmates." I said as I shook my head. "We convinced Taylor if he put on his Batman cape he could fly. Next thing we knew he was on the roof. Jumped off and broke his arm. We were grounded for ages!" Glenn and I both laughed.

"So embarrassing." Taylor shook his head. "On that note, I'm going to bed."

"I'm right behind you." I said with a yawn. "Thank you guys. For everything, really."

"No problem, sweetie." Carol said with a smile.

"I'll walk with ya." Maggie said.

As I stood, I caught a glance of Daryl directly across from me. He wore a small grin but it disappeared as soon as he saw me look at him. For some reason, I felt discouraged by this.

Shaking it off, I headed towards the house with Maggie and Taylor.

As we we entered, the house was illuminated with oil lanterns. Herschel sat in the living room upon the ancient couch with a bible in hand. He looked up when he heard us enter.

"Hello there." He said, his warm welcoming smiled stretching across his face. "Let me fetch your medicine, Miss Holden."

"No, you stay put, Daddy. I'll get it." Maggie said with a wave of her hand.

Herschel said his thanks to his daughter before gesturing to the seats across from him. As we took our seats, he closed the book in his hands.

"Do you believe?" He asked, his eyes glancing down at the bible.

I shook my head. "No, I'm sorry, I don't." I said. "Even more now."

"I'm Buddhist. Well, I was Buddhist. I don't know what I'd call myself now. Alive is all I know, really." Taylor said.

"Don't apologize. Everyone believe what they do for a reason." He said. "I find comfort in the word. Lately, I must admit, I've had a lot to mull over. The Lord promised the dead would rise... I thought he had something a little different in mind."

I nodded and shifted nervously. Talk of religion had always made me uneasy.

"Our mother was Catholic, our father was Agnostic." Taylor told the man. "We were raised in a Catholic church. But we all had very different views of religion. Our older brothers practiced Hare Krishna, our sister was pagan."

"You had more siblings?" Herschel said with a slight hint of surprise in his tone.

"Yes." I said, happy that the topic was being changed. "We had two older brothers, they were twins like us, Greyson and Julian. We had an older sister as well, Cora."

"Did they not..." he started.

"Cora didn't." Taylor said, shaking his head. "We couldn't find Greyson and Julian."

"I'm very sorry for your loss." He told us grimly. "I lost my wife and step son, Shawn."

"I'm sorry." I said. "It's very hard."

"It is." He agreed.

Maggie reemerged into the living room and made her way over to me. She handed me the medicine and a glass of water.

"I changed your sheets." She said as she took the glass of water from me once I was done.

"You're too sweet." I said with a smile. "Thank you for your hospitality, Mr. Greene."

"Please, call me Herschel." He said as he stood.

"Well, I guess we're off to bed then." Taylor said.

We said our goodnight's and made our way upstairs. Pausing before I walked into the room I had woken up in, I turned to Taylor who was about to walk into his room across the hall since we didn't have our tents with us.

"Tay?" I said.

"Yeah, Riv?" He said as he turned around to look at me.

"Rick talked to me earlier about staying with the group. What do you think?" I asked. Even though Rick had said Taylor's response was similar to my own, I knew we had to discuss it together.

"I think it would be smart." He said.

"I think it would be too." I agreed.

"That settles that then." He nodded. "We stay."

"We stay." I repeated. "Just make sure your not staying just to stare at Beth..."

Taylor rolled his eyes. "Goodnight, sis."

"Goodnight, Tay. Love you."

"Love you too." He said before closing the door behind him.

I sighed as I entered my room and shut the door. I pulled off my boots and sat them beside the door before I headed into the small bathroom. I found a pair of sweat pants and a T-shirt in my backpack and carefully changed. After I was dressed in my night clothes, I grabbed the bandages and disinfectant Maggie had left on the sink for me and changed my bandages on my wound. I stared at the stitched up spot on my body and once again reminded myself just how lucky I was. I dug around in my bag once more and finally found my hair brush and toothbrush.

After I brushed my teeth, I undid my braid and let my curls loose. Brushing through them, I smiled to myself in the mirror. It almost felt foreign being able to actually get ready for bed instead of just climbing into a sleeping bag with the dirt and grime of the day still on you. Or only having a cold, quick river bath. And that was if you were lucky.

After I got ready, I climbed into the bed and snuggled down, enjoying the softness of a real bed and soft sheets. I turned off the oil lantern beside the bed and closed my eyes.

For the first time since the dead had risen, I fell asleep feeling safe, content, and most of all, _hopeful_.


	3. Chapter Three: The Break Through

The next morning I was woken up by a loud knock on the bedroom door. I sat up quickly, startled out of my peaceful slumber. I let out a groan and hissed, falling back onto the bed again. Another louder, more impatient knock filled the room.

"C'min." I called through gritted teeth.

To my shock, Daryl Dixon entered the room. As soon as he saw me clutching my side, he hurried over, placing the plate he held in his hand down on the bedside table.

"Wha's wrong?" He asked, shoving the covers off me.

"I'm fine. Just sat up too quickly." I explained with a wave of my free hand.

His eyes widened in shock as he looked down at me. I was curious at first, then suddenly it dawned on me; I'd taken my sweat pants off in the middle of the night. I tried to hide my embarrassment.

"What?" I chuckled nervously. "Never seena girl with her pants off?"

_You're an idiot, Holden_. I thought to myself. _That just made it worse_.

"Uhh…. Sure." He stammered. "I jus', uh….. Brought ya sum breakfas'. Thought cha might be hungry…"

"Thanks." I said as I sat up, dangling my legs off the side of the bed. My t-shirt hung halfway to my knees, so I wasn't worried about flashing my goods. I really was great at making people incredibly uncomfortable. _Idiot_, I repeated to myself.

"Uhhh…." He stammered some more, backing away. "I'll get Herschel at look at yer wound. Make sure ya didn' rip any stitches out."

"No, it's fine. I'll check it out in a minute when I take a shower. Thanks though." I said. I wanted to laugh as I watched him slowly back towards the door. It was like I'd scared the shit out of him.

"I'll uh…. Tell em yer gettin' ready. We're, uh…." He coughed and slightly jumped as his back finally hit the bedroom door before he continued. "Almost ready."

"Okay." I smiled a little too much. "Thanks Daryl."

"Yeah." He mumbled as he rushed out of the room and closed the door a little too hard behind him.

I softly laughed to myself as I shook my head and headed towards the bathroom. I took my shirt off and tossed it onto the back of the toilet and turned on the water. I took off my bandages and checked my stitches. Everything seemed to be fine. Sliding out of my underwear, I hopped into the stream of warm water. I let out a sigh of relief, which came a moment too soon. The door flung open and I heard Taylor hiss my name.

"What?!" I hissed back, peeking out of the shower.

"What did you do to Daryl?" He asked, eyes wide.

"Nothing." I said nonchalantly.

"Lies!" He hissed again. "I've never seen a man's face that red, or move that fast away from you."

"Alright, fine." I sighed. "He brought me breakfast and he scared me when he knocked, I was still asleep. So I sat up too fast. When he came in, I was holding my side. He rushed over and pulled the covers down to check on me. I had kinda…."

"Spit it out, woman!" He declared.

"I didn't have any pants on, dammit!" I shouted.

I watched as the realization of what I had said set in. In a matter of seconds, Taylor's face held confusion, then understanding, then amusement. As amusement set in, he broke out in a laughing fit and slid down the bathroom wall.

"Oh, get out, loser!" I said, darting my head back behind the curtain. "I'm trying to shower!"

"Oh, I'm getting out." Taylor barely said through his laughter. "I'm goin' to tell Rhee then go fuck with Daryl."

"Taylor Holden, you better not!" I said sternly, peeking from behind the curtain again.

But it was too late. I caught a glimpse of the bathroom door shutting. I groaned and showered as quick as I could.

As I got out and dried off quickly, I darted into the bedroom in my towel. I dug through my backpack and pulled out a pair of faded jean shorts and a Nirvana t-shirt. I sloppily bandaged my side back up and towel dried my hair the best I could and ran a brush through it. As soon as I finished brushing my teeth, I ran out the door as fast as my injured side could handle.

I was thankful I didn't run into anyone on my way out of the house. Once I reached the porch, I spotted Glenn and Taylor just ahead. I quickly made my way over to them.

As soon as Glenn spotted me, he started laughing.

"You didn't, Taylor?!" I groaned.

"You know I did." He said with a bright smile as he crossed his arms.

I punched him hard in the arm.

"Ow!" He said, grabbing where I'd hit him.

"Aw, calm down, Riv." Glenn chuckled. "It's not that bad."

"Yeah, not yet. Until one of you dorks runs and lets Daryl know you two know." I sighed. "Please, don't say anything. I already spooked him enough. Y'all start fuckin' around and…"

"You like him," Glenn said suddenly.

I furrowed my eyebrows. "I barely know him!"

"You didn't say no!" Taylor said loudly.

"Say no to what?" T-Dog asked as he approached.

"Riv likes Daryl." Taylor blurted out.

"Are you serious right now, Tay?! I never said I did!" I shouted at him, pushing him hard.

"But you didn't say no…" T-Dog pointed out with a small smile.

"Oh my God." I sighed as I ran my fingers through my hair and turned to walk away. "This is bad." I whispered to myself.

_Very bad_.

I made my way back into the house and up to the bedroom I was temporarily occupying. I was seriously considering locking myself in there. As I reached the top of the stairs, I spotted Maggie walking out of my room.

"Hey." She beamed. "I was looking for you. Daddy wanted me to give ya your medicine."

"Oh, thanks." I said a little too hastily.

"What's wrong?" She asked as she handed me the medicine and the glass of water.

"Nothing." I answered before I popped the medicine in my mouth.

She raised her eyebrows.

I swallowed and sighed. "Fine. Wanna come in here and talk?"

"Yeah." She nodded.

We entered the room and I shut the door behind us. Sitting down on the bed, I sighed again. _Why was I even doing this?_I thought to myself. I had never had many friends that were girls but I felt oddly close to Maggie already. I felt confident that she wouldn't tell everyone.

"What's going on?" She asked.

"It's nothing really…" I began. "Daryl brought me breakfast this morning and when he knocked it scared me cause I was still asleep. I sat up too fast and when he came in, he saw me clutching my side and he ran over and threw the covers off me to check on me. I….." I sighed. "I didn't have any pants on."

Her eyes widened.

"I had underwear on!" I clarified quickly. "Now Taylor knows, and he told Glenn. And I was arguing with them and they said I like Daryl and I told them I barely knew him. So, Tay practically shouts 'Well, you didn't say no.' and T-Dog walked over and Taylor told him I liked him! This is getting out of hand…. I don't want to spook Daryl. He's already spooked as it is. You shoulda seen how he stuttered and stammered and ran like hell once he got to the door."

She nodded again. "I'll talk to Glenn and Taylor."

"Thank you!" I said, grasping her hands. "I have to get ready to go on a run with Taylor, Daryl and Rick, so I'll be able to keep a close eye on Tay for a while. I swear he's like a 14 year old girl when it comes to gossip."

She laughed. "Don't worry. We'll get this on lock down."

She got up and walked over to the door. As she reached for the door knob, she paused. She turned around and looked over at me as I was packing my bag.

"Do you like him?" She asked.

I froze in my tracks. "I, uh…. He intrigues me." I stammered.

She smiled and nodded. "That's what I thought."

I met the guys over by the silver SUV we were taking. I quickly ran over to Taylor who was talking to Daryl.

"Hey, uh, Tay." I said. "Lemme talk to you for a sec."

He narrowed his eyes at me.

"Now." I said sternly.

"Yeah." He nodded. "Be right back, man."

He followed me to the back of the car. I slung my bag into the trunk and pointed at him.

"Stop. Don't do whatever you're planning on doing." I said. "Please, Tay. I barely know him, I freaked him out….. And yes, I hate that I'm admitting this to you, but I'm intrigued by him. I'll talk you up to Beth. If you so much as step a toe outta line, I'll end you. And you know I can."

"Fine!" He huffed. "You got me. I'll…"

"No, no. I don't want you doing anything." I cut him off.

"But I could talk ya up, ya know." He shrugged.

"No." I said firmly.

"Fine." He sighed. "But in return for my silence, I want to be talked up. Make me seem…"

"Like a decent human?" I said. "Lot of work there."

"You're so funny." He said sarcastically as he closed the hatch.

We walked around the car and up to the two men. They stood at the hood of the car with a map laid out.

"So, we're heading east?" Daryl asked, looking at Taylor.

"Uh, River is the navigator." He said, pointing to me.

I narrowed my eyes at him before I walked over beside Daryl and looked at the map.

"Yeah, we go east. Just about five miles. We parked on this dirt road right off from this one." I said, pointing to the location.

"Good." Rick said. "Not far."

We loaded up; Rick was driving, Daryl in the passenger seat and Taylor and I occupied the back seat. The only thing that was spoken was when I gave directions. It was an uncomfortable silence.

About half way there, I casually slipped my glasses out of my pocket and put them on.

"What the hell are you doing?" Taylor asked.

"Wearing my glasses." I said without looking at him.

"Can we talk about the glasses?" He said exasperated. He hated my glasses more than anything.

"No." I shot back quickly.

"Fine." He said. "But just know you look ridiculous."

"Thank you." I said sarcastically.

"Oh, my God. I know what you're doing…." He said suddenly.

"No, no. just shut up." I hissed.

"There." I said, leaning forward and pointing, cutting off my conversation with Taylor as quickly as possible. "There's our cars."

"That yours?" Daryl asked.

"The Impala?" I asked. "Yes."

"Why two cars?" Rick asked suspiciously.

"We had too many supplies to fit in one." I said.

I saw Daryl raise his eyebrows at the man. I could understand their trepidation. Who could blame them? In this world, you not only had to fear the dead, but fear the living as well. The dead were predictable, the living weren't.

We slipped out of the SUV, weapons at the ready. Taylor ran over to his Honda, followed by Daryl as Rick and I walked over to the Impala. I took the keys out of my pocket and unlocked the trunk. As I opened it, Rick let out a low whistle.

"How'd y'all do all this?" He asked, looking at all the weapons.

"Some were from our father's collection, the rest from a pawn shop that we cleared and a hunting store that was basically untouched." I explained.

"Wow." He said. "Daryl, you're gonna wanna see this."

"Yeah." He replied. "You're gonna wanna see this too, man."

"What all do you have in here?" Rick asked me.

"A couple 9 mms, four machetes, a compound bow, 44 mag, two rifles, one sawed off rifle, three shot guns, an AK, two katanas, and plenty of ammo and arrows. Not including what we had on us." I recited.

Just as I finished my list, Daryl walked over. "Damn." He said. "They got more food in that Honda than I've seen in months."

"How'd you come across that?" Rick asked again.

"Went and raided our parents house, a couple gas stations, a food bank, an elementary school and a grocery store." I told him. "We hit the places in the first week. We knew if we waited, a lot of stuff would be gone. Got a lot of medical supplies and meds from a couple pharmacies in the backseat."

"River is an excellent scavenger." Taylor said with a smile.

"Thanks."

"Alright, let's get back." Rick said, closing the trunk of the Impala. "I only ask that you all keep the information about these weapons to yourselves. I don't won't wind of it getting' out. I'm already havin' enough trouble with a duffle bag full. Let alone a trunk full."

I nodded. "Will do."

"Alright." He nodded. "Daryl, ride with River. In case anything happens, since she's still injured, she needs someone with her."

Daryl only nodded to the man as he rounded the car towards the passenger door.

My mouth slightly opened in shock as I looked to Taylor. I knew, somehow, someway, this was his doings.

"Oh, River." Rick said, just as I was about to slide into the driver seat.

"Yeah?" I called.

"Nice glasses." He smiled.

"Thanks." I said suspiciously.

I flipped Taylor off before he ducked down into his car and started it up. I reluctantly slid into the driver seat of my own and started the engine. Daryl didn't say a word as we took off behind the silver SUV and the black Honda Civic.

I felt myself shifting nervously. I reached over and turned the radio down.

"Hey, uh…" I began.

"Nuthin' to talk 'bout." Daryl said, cutting me off.

"Well, damn. What a shame. I was just dying for that awkward ass conversation." I said sarcastically.

Daryl just huffed. "So, this was yers?"

"My dad's. Gave it to me when I was 16." I answered.

I propped my elbow up on the window and rested my head on my hand.

"In perfect condition… musta cost a pretty penny." He said. "What was he? A damn doctor?"

I furrowed my eyebrows. "No, he was a lawyer." I answered sourly.

"Figures." He said simply.

The rest of the ride back to the farm was in silence except for the sounds of Led Zeppelin I'd cranked up so if he decided to huff again, I wouldn't hear it.

Over the next few weeks, Daryl barely spoke to me. Maggie and I had convinced my brother and Glenn to keep their traps shut. And as I had promised, I'd talked Taylor up to Beth. They'd started hanging out some, just getting to know each other. Glenn and Maggie had finally admitted they liked each other and were hanging out regularly. I felt like the third wheel - _fifth wheel?_ - and I hated it.

So, a lot of times, when Glenn and Maggie and Beth and Taylor were together, and I was the left out element, Carl and I hung out. We refilled the water bottles together and I helped him with his homework. I'd grown fond of the young boy. And surprisingly, Lori didn't seem to care. It seemed like she was happy I was taking some of the load off her. I didn't mind. He was a sweet kid.

I had healed great. Just a few days after we had returned with our cars, Herschel had taken my stitches out and cleared me for duty. I was elated to finally be done with all that mess and finally feel like a normal, functioning human being again, but I still felt off.

I had tried to keep myself busy helping out around camp; patching up damaged clothes with Lori, washing clothes, cooking with Carol, picking apples with Maggie, feeding the horses with Beth. I had even finished five books courtesy of Dale. But I found myself increasingly bored. It unnerved me to be doing such domesticated tasks. Don't get me wrong, I didn't mind doing them, and I'd help out anyway the group needed me to. But still, I found myself staring at my bow and arrows and then to the woods longingly.

Finally, one day I spotted Rick walking towards the house and decided to make my move. I excused myself from helping Carl with his homework and sprinted across the yard towards him.

"Rick." I called as I approached.

"Ah, River." He said, stopping in his tracks. "Just the person I was wanting to talk to."

"Funny, I could say the same." I laughed. "You first."

"Okay." He nodded. "I wanted to first of all, thank you for helping with Carl."

"No problem. He's a good kid." I said with a smile.

He smiled. "One other thing I wanted to thank you for was keeping the weapons a secret."

"Again, no problem. I understand you'd have some problems. One in particular." I said, referring to Shane.

"And speaking of that one in particular, I want you to be careful around Shane." He said, his tone changing drastically. I could tell he was seriously worried. "He's become very…"

"Erratic." I finished for him.

"Yes." He said. "And I don't know what he's capable of anyone. And I've noticed no matter what, his infatuation with you will not be deterred."

"Yeah, he doesn't take a hint, does he?" I said, nodding.

"No, that he doesn't." Rick said, trying to chuckle to lighten to mood. "I know your brother has had some concerns as well."

"Well, I appreciate your concern. And I'll be careful. But don't worry, I can take care of myself." I said with a smile.

"Oh, I don't doubt that one bit." He said, smiling back. "Now, what'd you wanna talk to me about?"

"Okay… here it goes." I said, readying myself. "I appreciate you letting us into your group. And Tay and I will do whatever you need us to do to contribute to this group. But I'm an excellent hunter and a decent tracker. I could easily be helping double what Daryl is bringing back for the group and help look for Sophia. And I know, I'm not stupid. I know by now we're looking for a corpse or a walker. But I'd never admit that to Daryl or Carol. But, seriously, I'm going fuckin' insane patching shirts and shit. Like I said, if that's what you need and want me to do, cool, I'll do it all day, every day. But, please. Lemme out there."

Rick took in my words for a moment, a smile stretching across his face. "Taylor okay with it?"

"Taylor isn't my keeper." I said firmly.

"Alright." He nodded.

I stuck out my hand for him to fist bump me. He looked at me curiously before chuckling and bumping his fist against mine.

"You go out in the morning with Daryl. I'll let him know." He said.

"With Daryl?" I choked out.

"Yeah, not going alone." He said simply.

I nodded as he walked away. A ridiculous smile spread across my face as I walked back over to Carl who sat waiting for me under the tree.

"What are you smiling about?" He asked.

"Nothing, sport." I said.

The rest of the day I was in great spirits.

The next morning I found myself awake very early in the morning. The sun wasn't even up yet. I groaned as I unzipped my sleeping bag and got out. Since we'd gone and got our supplies, we'd set up our tents with the rest of the group so we weren't invading the Greene family's privacy anymore than we had to. I yawned and rubbed my eyes. I hadn't got up quite this early since coming to the farm. It was oddly nice. I braided my hair quickly to the side before grabbing my clothes I'd picked out the night prior. I slipped into my black jean shorts and black sleeveless top that was slightly oversized; it was better to move in while hunting but still fit my figure nicely. Not that that mattered in the woods, right?_Right_, I reminded myself.

I grabbed my boots and slipped them on, lacing them up quickly. I put my knife in my stealth and pushed my Glock in the back of my shorts. Grabbing my bow, quiver and backpack from the corner of my tent, I climbed out. I could hear Taylor snoring from the tent next to mine. I rolled my eyes and looked around. I spotted Daryl next to the caravan, talking to Dale. He must be on watch, I thought to myself.

As I approached the men, the sun was just beginning to rise.

"Morning, young lady." Dale called from the top of the caravan with a smile.

"Morning, Dale." I said with a smile and a small wave.

"C'mon. Let's go." Daryl practically growled before taking off towards the woods.

"Have fun." Dale said sarcastically.

"Don't ya know." I said, raising my eyebrows.

I heard him chuckle as I walked away.

Many hours later, I found myself deep in the woods with Daryl Dixon. We hadn't spoke a single word. _Not a single one_. We'd only communicated through nods. Nod for _'__I'll take this kill'_, nod for _'__Good shot'_, nod for _'__I'll get that'_. I was sure by the time we reached the farm, my vocal chords would no longer know how to function.

There was only thing that really, really bothered me. It was the lack of trail for Sophia. I'm a decent tracker, and I saw nothing. Daryl was simply searching the woods, not following a trail anymore. By now, it was late afternoon, and I knew he had to have noticed I could track. Therefore, I knew he was smart enough to figure out that I knew what he was doing. But I said nothing. And neither did he. I didn't want to admit anymore than anyone else what the young girl's fate probably was.

We had collected a good amount of squirrels and a few rabbits. The heat was intense and I had soaked my shirt with sweat. I knew I had to smell to high heaven. Not that he was close enough to tell, though.

Finally, I decided to break the silence.

"It's startin' to get late." I said. "We still gotta walk back and skin all these."

He turned back to look at me with a shocked look on his face; obviously taken back I'd finally spoke. I could see him debating what I had said. Finally, he simply nodded and walked by me, back towards the farm.

For the first two miles, it was silence. I was sick of not talking. So, I was happy when he finally spoke to me.

"Yer a decent hunter." He said. "And quietest woman I eva met. Figured you'd slow me down or talk so much all the game would run."

I chuckled. "Well, I'll take that as a compliment, I guess."

"It was." He said simply.

"Thanks." I mumbled. "Um… can I ask ya something?"

"Sure." He grunted.

"What'd ya mean the other day on the way back to the farm? About my dad and Baby?" I asked.

"Baby?" He said curiously.

"Oh, my car. I nicknamed her when I was in high school." I said, slightly embarrassed.

"Nuthin'…" He mumbled.

"Oh, you're a terrible liar, Dixon! You're not gonna hurt my feelings." I said.

"Fine." He shot back. "Ya look like ya came from money, is all."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Seriously?" I shook my head. "Well, if you must know. My father was a lawyer and my mother was a pediatric doctor. He had a huge practice. But the kicker is, he was a compulsive gambler. The loads of money he made went straight down the drain as soon as he made it. It caught up to him eventually; my parent's were murdered on a business trip to Las Vegas. Never found out by who. By the time he died, almost everything was borrowed, owed or invested in real estate. We had to sell almost everything except their house just to have money to bury them and settle their debts. Mom always made excuses for him when he'd come home drunk or get threatened and shit. But none of us were stupid."

"'M sorry, I don't…"

"Don't, it's okay. Shit happens." I shrugged.

I saw the farm just ahead through the dense trees so I decided to say one last thing. "Daryl, you know you can talk to me, right?" I said. "I don't bite. At least not too hard. It doesn't make you stronger to keep people at arm's length. It takes a stronger person to be able to open up and let someone in."

He glanced over at me as we broke through the tree line. I spotted Taylor in the distance. He didn't say anything, he simply stood there, silent, staring at me.

"Well, I'll meet ya in a bit to help skin those. I gotta go talk to my brother real fast." I said. "Just remember what I said, Dixon."

I smiled brightly as I walked away, leaving him there at the entrance to the woods, looking dumbfounded.

Somehow, someway, I felt accomplished.

A little while later, I made my way across the yard. I had spotted Daryl by his usual tree - the large oak far away from the rest of the group.

"Hi there." I said as I got close and took a bite out of the apple I'd gotten from Maggie.

He looked up from the squirrel he was skinning. "Hey." He mumbled.

I inwardly rolled my eyes and sat down next to him. I tossed the apple core behind me and pulled my knife out of its stealth on my belt and held out my hand.

"Will you hand me one, please?" I asked.

Without a word, he grabbed a squirrel and handed it to me. After working a while in silence and I was on my fourth squirrel, he finally broke it.

"So…" He began hesitantly. "What was your boyfriend like?"

I glanced over at his curiously. Maybe my little random speech had worked.

"Well… Nick was selfish, greedy, lazy, inconsiderate and only cared about himself." I explained.

It was such an odd topic he would chose.

"Sounds likea jackass. Ya didn' deserve that." He said. "How long were ya together?"

"Three years." I relied. "Stupid, huh?"

"Why tha hell'd ya put up with that shit for three years?" He asked, surprised.

"Stupidity." I shrugged. "Honestly, I was about to break up with him the day all this started. He'd been cheating on me too. Big shocker there, huh? My sister Cora had come over to mine place I shared with a few friends and Taylor. Her and Taylor wanted to be there for moral support, in case I started to cave - and in case he got violent. Before I could get it out, the warning blared on the TV to evacuate the city. We could hear screams from the streets, all the panic." I could feel his ice blue eyes on me, but I didn't look. I kept on. "We grabbed what we could and ran. The dead were coming at us from every which way…. Tons of 'em. I glanced over from fighting a few off with Taylor to see a few getting close to Nick and Cora. The next thing I saw has replayed in my mind so many times… I watched as Nick tripped Cora on purpose and left her to die. A walker got her. But he got away. As soon as he made it over to us, I knew what I had to do." I tried to wipe a lone tear away and hoped Daryl hadn't seen. "I did what I had to do, or he would've cost us our lives too. It haunts me all the time…"

I finally glanced over at Daryl. I hated the way he was looking at me. I could see the pity… but there was something else. Something I couldn't quite put my finger on. Would he think differently of me now that he knew my dirty little secret?

Finally, to my relief, he spoke. And I felt myself be able to breathe again.

"I couldn't imagine…"

"Please don't think less of me." I blurted out, wiping away the tears from my cheeks. "And don't you dare tell anyone you saw me crying. Especially Taylor."

"I don't think differently of ya." He said plainly. "If anythin', I think more of ya. Ya did what ya had to do for you and Taylor to survive. I dunno if I coulda done something like that so soon. And yer secret's safe wit me."

I gave him a crooked, sad smile as I sniffed.

"Dun't cry." He said uncomfortably.

"Sorry." I laughed lightly. "I've never told anyone that. Just kinda tried to forget it ever happened. Only Taylor knew."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "Why me?"

I shrugged. "Dunno. Just feel like I can talk to ya. And one day, Daryl Dixon, one day, you'll open up to me too."

"We'll see 'bout that, Red." He said with a shake of his head.


	4. Chapter Four: The Run

A week or so later, I woke up in my tent to hushed voices outside. The heat was already unbearable. The shadows from the people outside cast over my tent, giving a small amount of shade. I rubbed my eyes sleepily and slowly slipped out of my sleeping bag, inching closer to the tent door to hear better.

_"__Yer serious?" I heard Daryl's gruff voice say._

_"Well, I mean…. she said she wanted to go." Glenn's voice stammered back._

_"And get herself killed?!" Daryl shot back angrily._

_"You've hunted with her for awhile now. You know she's tough." Glenn defended me._

A smile broke across my curiosity stricken face. _Thank you, Glenn._ I thought to myself.

_"__That's different." Daryl said._

_"What's going on, guys?" Taylor's voice came._

_"Daryl thinks I shouldn't take River with me on the run today." Glenn said. "I was coming over here to wake her up and he stopped me."_

_"Why?" Taylor asked curiously._

Thank you also, Taylor.

_"__Cause she could get herself killed, that's why." Daryl spat at him. "Yer her bruther and yer okay with this?"_

_"Well, honestly, no. But River can handle her own. And if you think she shouldn't go, you tell her. I won't. She'd beat me and Glenn up for even suggesting it. We tried to leave her out of karate lessons when we were kids. She convinced our mom to let her take 'em just so she could kick our asses. And she did." Taylor said. "So, you wanna tell her not to go, that she'd get herself killed, be my guest. But I hope you can run fast, man. Cause you'll get an arrow in your ass. I'm leavin'… I don't wanna be anywhere around when someone tells her that shit."_

Well, well. I could count on my lovely brother sometimes.

_"__He's right, Daryl." Glenn said, confidence in his voice now that my brother had spoken up. "If you can convince her not to go. Have at it."_

I heard footsteps as two of the shadows disappeared. I quickly got back into my sleeping bag and pretended to be asleep.

I heard the tent unzip as I tried as best I could not to peek and see who was coming in.

Just a moment later, I got my answer.

"Hey, River." Daryl's voice came.

_Ha, this was going to be an interesting day_. I thought to myself.

"Yeah?" I said in a mock sleepy voice.

I sat up and saw him enter my tent, laying his crossbow down beside him.

"I, uh….." He said as he sat down next to my sleeping bag.

I gave him his time as I slowly sat up. I ran my fingers through my hair and began to braid it to one side as I waited.

"I just…" He tried again.

"Well, c'mon, Daryl." I said slyly. "Nothin' is that important you can't say to me."

"I don't…" He sighed. "I don't think you should go on that run today with Glenn."

I raised my eyebrows curiously at him. "And why is that, Dixon?"

His eyes widened slightly. He hadn't been expecting this question, I'm sure.

"I just… think it's too dangerous." He explained, looking down at his shoes.

"Oh. Well, then. I guess I'll just stay here then." I said.

"Really?" He asked, looking back up at me.

"Uh, no." I laughed.

"Why not?" He shot back.

"Cause, I want to help." I said, grabbing my clothes from my backpack.

"Ya help plenty." He said sternly. "Ya hunt and skin with me, ya help Carl with homework and shit, ya cook with Carol, ya always runnin' around helping Maggie with shit she's doin'…"

"Well, I want to help this way too." I told him. "And the fact you just categorized two of the things I help with as shit doesn't help your case."

"Yer impossible, woman." He huffed, getting up to leave.

"Well, Dixon. This is how I see it. There's one of three reasons you don't want me to go. A. You think Glenn can't take care of me. B. You think I can't take care of myself. C. You like me and don't want me to put myself in danger somewhere you're not. So, which is it?" I said.

He stopped suddenly by the doorway and sighed. "All of 'em." He said, barely above a whisper.

And with that, he left.

I sat there, dumfounded, for a moment. I couldn't seem to process what had just happened. I was sure it was because he thought of me as weak. I had just thrown the last option in there to mess with him. I always joked around with him since he'd finally started somewhat talking to me while we went on hunts. Maybe he was developing a sense of humor and joking back with me? _Oh, now that was funny._ I thought. _Daryl with a sense of humor._

I quickly got on my clothes - a pair of jean shorts and a white t-shirt - grabbed my gear and ducked out of my tent into the sunshine. I squinted my eyes as I looked around at all the group members. Dale and Andrea were over by the caravan, T-Dog sat on top of it on watch, Lori and Carol were by the trees near by hanging clothes on a make shift line, Rick, Daryl, Glenn and Taylor were by the cars discussing something. I didn't see anyone else.

With a sigh, I decided to walk over to my brother whether Daryl was there or not.

"Hey, Riv." He exclaimed. "You look like shit."

"Get the mirror out from in front of your face, dork." I smiled at him. "Almost ready, Glenn?"

Glenn looked nervously over at Daryl before he spoke. "Yeah."

"'M headin' out." Daryl said as he stalked off.

I watched him as he walked across the yard towards the stables.

"He talked to ya, huh?" Taylor asked.

"Yeah." I said without looking over at him.

"Well, he doesn't have an arrow in his ass or a black eye. That's a shocker." He laughed.

"Shut up or you're about to have an arrow in your ass." I threatened. "I'll be right back, Glenn."

Glenn nodded before I took off across the yard after the crossbow wielding man.

I walked into the stables, realizing I wasn't quite sure why I had followed him over here. As I entered, I saw him putting a saddle on one of the horses.

"What do ya want, Red?" He said impatiently.

I jumped slightly since he hadn't even looked over. I didn't even think he knew I was there. I slowly walked over to him and put my hand on his shoulder. He flinched, just enough for me to notice, but I said nothing about it.

"Come back safe." I said.

He looked over at me. "Yeah, sure thing, girly. You too."

I gave him a small smile before turning around to leave.

"Hey." He called, right when I was almost out of the stables.

"Yeah?" I said, stopping in my tracks and turning to face him.

"Tell China Man I said to be very careful out there today." He said.

I furrowed my eyebrows in curiosity. "What's that suppose to mean?"

"He'll know." He grunted, looking away from me. "Jus' tell him."

"Will do, Dixon." I said, walking away.

I said my hellos and good mornings to various group members as I made my way back over to Glenn.

"Ready?" I said.

He looked up from the trunk of my Impala and smiled. "Yeah, we're all set. I got the map."

"Cool." I nodded. "Let's ride."

I walked around the car to find Rick standing by the driver door with my brother. He placed his hand on my shoulder and smiled.

"Be safe." He said, pulling me into a hug.

"Will do." I said, hugging him back.

He pulled away, patted my shoulder once more and walked away.

"Don't get shot, sis." Taylor said, walking up to me.

"I'll do my best." I laughed.

I slid into the driver seat, Taylor shutting the door for me. Glenn was already seated and situated in the passenger seat, sifting through the cassette collection in the glove box.

"See ya, man." Taylor told him.

Glenn nodded in return as the engine roared to life.

A few minutes later, we were on the main road and on our way. Glenn had pulled out his map and was mulling it over. He'd popped in Deep Purple, to my surprise.

"So, what's the plan?" I asked.

"Head south. We're gonna hit a few stores in the town nearby. I got them planned out. Just follow my lead." He said without looking up from the map.

"Whoa, Rhee." I laughed. "Look at you."

"What?" He asked, looking over at me.

"You're…. more confident now." I said, smiling at him.

He just smiled. "Yeah."

"I'm so glad I found ya, Rhee." I told him.

"Me too, Riv." He told me. "I never thought I'd see ya again."

"Over there." Glenn said a short while later, pointing towards the small pharmacy on the left.

I parked the car in an alley way just up from the store and turned off the engine. I grabbed my bow and quiver from the back seat and glanced over at Glenn.

He tore a piece of paper in half and handed me a part of it. "Here's half the list. When we get in, I'll go to the right, you go to the left." He said, pulling his knife out. "We'll meet up in the back to scout for meds."

"Got it." I nodded. "Oh, by the way, Daryl said be very careful out here today. Said you'd know what he meant."

His eyes widened. "Why the hell would you tell me this before we get out of the car?"

I laughed and shook my head, opening the door. "Lead the way, Rhee."

I got my arrow ready and followed Glenn as he sprinted across the street towards the small pharmacy. I looked up at the dirty sign above the door: _Hartman's Pharmacy_. In the window was a hand written sign. _Take what you need. God Bless._ The place looked practically untouched. Glenn nodded to me as he slowly opened the door, darting his hand in to silence the bell on the inside.

I followed him in and raised my bow in anticipation. We slipped down the main aisle, turning to check down each individual aisle on our side. By the time we reached the pharmacy counter, I turned to my left to see a walker coming towards me. Letting my arrow fly, I caught it right in the middle of it's forehead and watched it crumble.

"Okay." Glenn said. "We'll scan behind the pharmacy counter when we're done in the front. They can't get over it if there is any."

I nodded and walked back towards the front of the store to start sorting through my list.

I smoothed out the crumpled paper to see Glenn's familiar slanted handwriting.

_Soap (bar and body wash)  
>Bandages<br>Neosporin  
>Needle and thread<br>Girl items (ick!)_

I laughed softly to myself as I saw the small _(ick!)_ scribbled on the paper.

I stared at the shelves. I found a good amount of soap, both bar and body wash. Along with shampoo. Shoving as much into my bag as possible, I moved along to the next aisle.

I grabbed all the boxes of Tylenol and other over the counter medicines as possible, before reaching the bandages. I grabbed all the bandages, Neosporin, iodine, alcohol, peroxide and any other supply we might even consider needing. This store had essentially been untouched. There were way too many bandages, even gauges, left for this to have been raided yet. Either that or whoever did wasn't intelligent enough to scavenge properly.

And on the next aisle, I got my answer. Almost all the food items were gone, save for chocolate syrup. _Someone wasn't smart_, I thought to myself.

I grabbed what little food was left and moved on. On the wall just before the last aisle, I found numerous travel sized sewing kits. _Perfect_, I thought, grabbing them all up and shoving them in my backpack.

As I rounded the last aisle, I found Glenn bent down looking curiously at a box. As I neared, he practically jumped out of his skin.

"Oh, hey. I, uh…." He stammered, dropping the box.

I bent down and picked it up, my eyes widening in shock.

"Condoms, Rhee?" I said. "Oh! You and Maggie…"

"No, I… uh…" He tried to defend himself.

"Oh, c'mon, dude." I laughed. "It's the end of the world, I'm pretty sure you can safely brag to one of your besties about getting laid."

He laughed, his cheeks red as a tomato. "Okay, yeah. When we went on that run the other day…"

My mouth dropped open as I raised my hand in the air for a high five. "Look at you, Tiger!"

He laughed. "So, uh…. This is all we need up here?" He asked.

"Just grabbing the icky girly stuff, then we'll be on our way." I winked.

After I'd grabbed all the feminine supplies that were left, we looked back at the pharmacy from over the counter.

"You'd think if there were any they'd have come up when they heard us." Glenn said, looking around.

I nodded before I jumped up on the counter, followed by Glenn. As we landed on the other side, I jerked my head to the left letting him know I'd go that way.

When I saw the aisle was clear, I started sifting through the medicines, grabbing anything we might need from antibiotics to allergic reaction treatments. I grabbed some of the insulin and needles too, just in case.

"Whoa, Glenn." I whispered. "They were practically untouched. Kinda weird…"

"Yeah." He said as he appeared beside me.

"Look." I said, pointing to the shelf I was grabbing medicine from. "All this pain medication…only food was gone from my side of the search. Someone wasn't a smart scavenger."

"Their loss, our gain." He shrugged. "Let's go."

I stuffed the last of the medication in my bag and turned to follow Glenn down the aisle. Halfway down a box fell from the top of his overflowing backpack.

"Dropped something, Rhee." I said, bending to pick it up.

"No, River…" He said, turning around. "Oh shit, behind you!"

I didn't have a chance to fully turn around before the walker grabbed my shirt, pulling me down as I heard a loud rip. The wind knocked out of me, I tried with everything to keep it's snapping jaws away from my face. I tried desperately to catch my breath and reach for my knife. Just as my fingers touched the handle, blood splattered all over me and I felt the full weight of the finally dead walker flop on top of me.

Glenn grabbed the walker and tossed it off of me. I coughed and sputtered, wiping the blood out of my face as he helped me sit up.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Yeah." I said.

Looking down I saw the walker had ripped the front of my shirt down past my bra. Without looking at him, I glanced over at the box he had dropped and suddenly felt rage boil up inside of me.

Morning after pills.

I snatched the box and shrugged his grip off of me as I jumped to my feet.

"Who is this for?!" I shouted, shaking the box in front of his face.

"I, uh…." He stammered.

"Answer me, Rhee!" I yelled. "I almost died for morning after pills. Tell me!"

"Lori." He said sheepishly.

The shock was surely written all over my face. I grabbed his back pack from his shoulders and ripped it open to find five more boxes inside.

"River, I…." He started.

"Don't, Glenn." I said, shoving the boxes into a bag that laid littering the pharmacy floor. "She got what she needs."

As we jumped the counter, we heard a shout and a gunshot from outside.

"We gotta get out of here." Glenn said urgently. "Forget the other stores."

As we exited the small pharmacy, we saw five walkers coming down the road.

"Let's go." I hissed as I began to sprint across the street towards the car.

I jumped in the driver seat, chucking my back pack and bow and arrows in the back, but keeping a firm grip on the bag of goods I'd almost died for. I turned the key as the engine roared to life and skidded out of the alleyway back towards the farm.

"Don't River." Glenn pleaded as I threw the car into park a little too forcefully as we reach the farm.

"Shut up, Rhee." I said as I jumped out of the driver seat and scouted the area quickly, looking for the woman I wanted.

As I spotted her, I took off over to her, Glenn hot on my tail. I ignored his pleading. All I saw was red. He knew me well enough to know that his pleas were not going to be answered. But yet he continued to call after me. I saw her go into her tent just before I approached.

I pushed open the flap in the doorway and rushed inside. The brunettes eyes widened as I stormed in. "Hey, River. Can I help you? Oh, my God, what…"

"Yeah, you can fuckin' help me." I shouted, dumping the contents of the bag onto the table she sat at. "You can fuckin' get what you need your damn self from now own. If you wanna kill your damn love child with Deputy Dumbo, you don't ask my friend to get the murder weapon. You got me? I ALMOST DIED FOR THOSE. You put BOTH of us at risk for YOUR STUPID MISTAKE. You so much as ask Glenn for a glass of water and I'll end your ass, you got me?!"

She sat shocked, mouth agape, unable to speak. I stormed out of the tent to see Glenn standing there, eyes wide.

Taylor was just behind him. "Hey… whoa! Your covered in blood and your shirt. Riv? You okay?"

"Don't touch me, Tay." I said, shoving his hand away as I stalked off towards my tent.

That evening at supper, I sat separately from the group. I was still fuming over the days events. Daryl still hadn't returned from his search for Sophia. I felt a knot of worry in the pit of my stomach form as I sat staring at the woods absentmindedly.

A hand on my shoulder brought me suddenly from my thoughts.

The hand led to Maggie, who sat down on the ground next to me, a small smile on her face.

"You okay?" She asked. "Glenn told me what happened today. He's pretty tore up."

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said, sighing. "Just still pissed. I can't believe she'd be so selfish. I'm not mad at Glenn, I know he was just being Glenn, trying to help everyone. But she could've got us killed."

"I completely agree." Maggie said. "I would've went off on her too."

"I should go apologize to Glenn." I said.

"Maybe. I know he was pretty shook up. He's kinda scared of you when you're mad." She laughed.

I chuckled. "For good reason, too. Thanks Maggie."

"No problem." She said, hugging me. "Now tell me what else is bothering you."

"How do you know when something is bothering me?" I asked. "You're good."

She smiled. "It's written all over your face."

I sighed. "Well, if you must know, Daryl isn't back yet. He tried to get me to not go on the run with Glenn today. When he was leaving, I told him there was only three reasons he could have to not wanting me to go. Glenn couldn't take care of me, I couldn't take care of myself or that he liked me." I said, glancing over at the girl beside me. "He said all of them and just left."

Her eyes widened. "You serious?"

"Yeah." I said. "What does that mean?"

"You have an admirer!" She exclaimed.

"Shhh!" I hissed, looking around to see if anyone heard her. "No, way."

"Yes way!" She said. "Why else would he say all of them?"

"I dunno…" I shrugged. "Because he thinks me and Glenn can't take care of ourselves and he likes me as a friend. That constitutes as 'all of 'em', right?"

She laughed. "Yeah, okay. That's why he stares at you from across the yard, asks people where you are when you're not around…"

"What?" I almost yelped.

She simply nodded, a small sly smile on her pretty face.

"How do you-"

"I have my sources." She said.

"Alright, well, if your source is Taylor, he's lying." I said, standing up. "On that note, I'm going to my tent. Night, Maggie."

"Night, Riv." She said brightly.

I gave Carol my empty plate and thanked her for supper before I headed across the way towards my tent. My mind was going a mile an hour and all I wanted to do was read or sleep to forget the thoughts.

I entered my tent and flipped on the camping lantern. I sat down on my sleeping bag and unlaced my boots, tossing them to the corner of the tent. I grabbed my backpack and dug around.

Finally, my hands found what I was searching for. My copy of _Perks of Being A Wallflower_ and a bottle of tequila.

I sighed in relief and smiled at the two objects. I unscrewed the cap of the bottle and took a long swig, savoring the burning as it went down my throat.

Before I could get the first page done of my book, my tent unzipped hastily as Glenn flung himself inside in a panic.

"What's -"

He cut me off. "I know you're mad at me, but I have to talk to you, River." He said out of breath.

"I'm not mad. I'm really sorry I went off on you." I said.

But his response wasn't what I was expecting.

"The barn is full of walkers." He said plainly.

My eyebrows raised and I could feel the shock all over my face.

"Come again?" I said, putting down the book and picking up the bottle.

"The barn is full of walkers." He repeated.

I opened the bottle and took two gulps before handing it to Glenn who took it from me happily.

"How'd you find out?" I asked.

I watched as he swallowed a big gulp, making a face as it went down his throat. He coughed before he answered. "Maggie."

"Maggie?!" I hissed, taking the bottle back. I frowned a little. I had told Maggie tons of things I would only tell a good friend, and yet she had kept this secret from me?

"Yeah." He nodded. "We passed a note at supper. Told her to meet me in the hay loft so we could….. You know…. And well, she tried to stop me before I got there but she was too late. She didn't read the note till after she talked to you."

"Oh. This is bad." I sighed. I shook my head as I took another swig. "Have you told anyone else?"

"No." He said. "Quit hogging the bottle."

He jerked the bottle from my hands and sighed. My eyes widened. Glenn had never been a drinker. He was normally our designated driver.

"What do we do?" I asked.

"We gotta tell them." He sighed. "We can't keep something like this from them."

I nodded in full agreement. "But you promised Maggie you wouldn't, didn't you?"

He gave me a crooked smile. "Yeah."

"Want me to tell 'em so you don't break your promise?" I said, taking the bottle and another swig.

"Would you?" He asked, slightly slurred.

Just then the tent door flew open again. "Is there liquor?" Taylor said, sniffing.

"My God, you could've been a drug dog." I said, shaking my head.

"What's goin' on, guys?" Taylor said merrily, taking the bottle from my hands.

I glanced at Glenn before I answered. "The barn is full of walkers."

Taylor choked and spit out part of his shot. "Do what?!"

The next morning, I woke up with a blinding headache. I rolled over, seeing Taylor and Glenn still passed out in my tent. I sat up, accidentally knocking over the empty tequila bottle over.

"Damn." I whispered. "My last bottle…."

I frowned and reached for my bag blindly. I placed it in my lap and unzipped it, pulling out my bottle of Aleve. I grabbed my water bottle and swallowed the pills.

"Guys." I said, shaking Taylor.

"Hmmm." He grunted.

"Wake up." I said. "I've got some Aleve and shit."

"Ohhhh mmmyyyy Goooooddddddddddd." Taylor groaned. "Give me the whole damn bottle."

"That was what got us in this mess." I laughed.

"Don't laugh!" He hissed.

"Shut up, you two!" Glenn groaned.

"What a beautiful day, guys." I chuckled.

I laced up my boots, grabbed my clothes and gear and walked out of the tent. The sun seemed extra bright today as I let out another groan.

"Son of a bitch." I hissed. I dug in my backpack and found the pair of sunglasses.

I glanced around, searching for someone in particular. When I didn't see him nor his crossbow, I felt a lump in my throat form.

I marched over to the house and up the stairs, not passing anyone on my way. I was unsure how today was going to go down with the news we were about to have to drop, so I wasn't quite ready to talk to anyone yet.

As I opened the door, I practically ran into Beth.

"Oh, hey." I said, startled.

"Morning." She beamed.

"Um, do you mind if I borrow a bedroom or bathroom to get ready in?" I asked. "Taylor and Glenn are passed out in my tent."

She raised her eyebrows curiously. "Yeah, you can use the room you were in."

"Thanks." I nodded.

I walked by her without another word and up the hallway. I darted into the room as quick as a wink in hopes I didn't run into anyone else.

I shut the door behind me and sighed. I made my way into the bathroom and shed my clothes. I looked in the mirror and saw the familiar dirty face I had become accustom too.

"Hey." Beth's voice came, startling me.

"Yeah?" I said, holding my hand over my heart.

"I'm laying a towel out here for ya." She said sweetly. "You can take a shower if you'd like."

"Thanks, Beth." I said. "I'd love that."

I heard the bedroom door close behind her. I peeked out the bathroom to see if the coast was clear and stepped out far enough to grab the towel off the bedside table and dart back in.

I felt giddy as I turned on the faucet and the warm water began to flow. I jumped in and tried to let the water take away my stress.

After I was showered and ready, I walked out of the farm house. I saw most of the group together under the shade of the trees, eating breakfast. I sighed, knowing this was when I had to do it.

I walked over, grabbed a plate from Carol with a thanks, and sat down next to Taylor and Glenn who both had their heads in their hands.

"Eat, guys." I said. "You know hangover eggs help."

"They aren't your hangover eggs. They're just eggs." Taylor groaned. "And hangover eggs are a shot in the dark. Either they keep you from puking or everything comes out at once."

"Eggs are eggs. Whether I made 'em or not. Stop being a pansy." I said, shoving a forkful into my mouth.

"When are you gonna…." Glenn said, trailing off.

"In just a minute." I said. "Everyone is here."

He nodded and put his head back in his hands. I sighed and squared my shoulders, readying myself for what chaos was to come. I stood up and cleared my throat.

"Um, guys. If I could talk to y'all for a sec…" I said nervously. "I hate to spoil your breakfast but uh…." I rubbed my hand over my forehead, unsure of how to put it.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked over to see Glenn standing beside me, a wary smile on his face.

"The barn is full of walkers." He said.


	5. Chapter Five: I Will Remember

After the news of the barn, arguing had erupted in the group. My head was aching from the prior night's activities and everyone's shouting was starting to piss me off. Shane had taken off towards the barn, strutting as if he knew the answers to the universe.

"They're right." He said, peeking in one of the cracks.

"Let me talk to Herschel." Rick began.

"What's there to talk about?!" Shane shouted.

"This is his land!" Rick yelled back. "We are guests here!"

"Why don't you just let Rick do his thing?" I said suddenly.

"You need to mind your own business, little girl." Shane barked at me.

Taylor pushed past me, getting in Shane's face before I even knew what was going on.

"You better watch how you speak to my sister." Taylor practically growled.

I gave a small smile, knowing not to try to get Taylor to back down. It would only make him angrier.

Shane opened his mouth to speak again but I'd had enough.

"Shut up!" I shouted. All eyes darted over to me. "This is not your call, Shane. It is Herschel's land, let Rick talk to him and see what his reasoning is behind this. How long have y'all been here and this hasn't been a problem?" I said. "It's locked up tighter than Dick's hatband." He started to speak again and I raised my hand impatiently.

"Let Rick talk to Herschel. Keep someone on guard over here to make sure nothing goes in or out. After he talks to him, then we'll see what's up." I suggested.

"She's right." Rick said, looking at his friend.

"You need to get away from me." Shane said to Taylor.

"Talk to my sister that way again." Taylor threatened.

Shane stalked off in a huff.

"I'll go talk to Herschel." Rick said to the rest of us. "Just keep calm. T, mind keeping watch for a while?"

"That's fine." He nodded to the man.

As Rick started to walk off, I took off after him.

"Hey." I said, placing my hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"Yeah?" He said.

I could see the aggravation in his eyes. I knew all this had to be a load on his shoulders he didn't want or need. I wondered if Lori had told him about the baby yet.

"I know this isn't a good time…" I said. "But if Daryl isn't back by this evening, I'm going to look for him."

"You know…" Rick began.

"I know he can take care of himself." I cut him off. "But I have a bad feeling. Something isn't right. This isn't me asking, this is me givin' you a heads up."

Rick nodded. "Okay. But someone needs to go with you if you do. Don't want two people lost out there.'

I nodded in thanks and turned to leave. But his hand caught my shoulder to stop me.

"Thanks for standing behind me back there." He said.

"No problem." I said. "I always stand up for what I believe is the right thing to do. Being irrational about a situation isn't gonna solve it. Only make it worse."

He smiled and nodded before taking off towards the house once more, leaving me standing there.

Later that afternoon, I was sitting quietly under a tree by myself, making new arrows out of some wood and chicken feathers I'd got from the coop. I'd avoided talking to many people since the incident at the barn this morning. Lori had continued to keep her distance from me, seeming to be even angrier since I had spoke up this morning defending her husband by the death glares she was giving me. I simply smiled when I caught her looking at me. I wasn't going to let her think she had the upper hand in anything.

All of a sudden, a yell broke the silence between the group members.

"Walker!" Andrea shouted from the top of the caravan.

Everyone jumped to their feet and dropped what they were doing. I grabbed my bow and quiver and rushed over to the caravan. In the distance I could see a dark haired bloodied figure limping out of the woods.

"Daryl…" I breathed before taking off.

"River, wait!" Rick shouted.

But I paid no mind, I continued running across the field towards the limping figure.

"Oh, my God!" I shouted as the person came into focus.

It was Daryl, covered in blood, a necklace of walker ears around his neck and a doll in his hand.

"That's the second time you've pointed that damn thing at me." He grumbled tiredly.

I looked behind me to see Shane and Rick. Where the hell had Shane come from? Rick had his gun held up, but as Daryl spoke, he lowered it.

All of a sudden, a gun shot rang through the air. Daryl fell to the ground as I let out a blood curdling scream.

I ran over and dropped to my knees beside him, the tears already welling up in my eyes.

"He's just grazed." I said as Rick appeared beside me. "He's dehydrated and lost a lot of blood. We got to get him inside. Fast."

I grabbed the necklace of ears from around his neck and chucked them on the ground, knowing the rest of the group didn't need to see them. Rick and Shane picked Daryl up and we began across the yard as fast as we could.

As we approached the group, I saw Andrea running towards us. My anger suddenly present, my feet began to move quicker.

"Oh, my God! I thought he was a walker! Is he…"

But my fist hitting her jaw stopped her mid sentence. I hit her again and again.

"You ignorant, bitch!" I shouted as she toppled to the ground. "You could've killed him! I heard Dale tell you not to shoot! But you just had to try to fuckin' prove something, didn't you?! Well, good job, moron! All you proved is how STUPID you are and that you're a terrible shot, thank god!"

"C'mon…" Taylor said, grabbing me. "Let's get you inside so you can help save him instead of shoot him." He eyed Andrea hatefully as we passed her.

"You got a temper, Red." Shane said as we walked towards the house.

"Don't speak to my sister or you'll find out how much both of us have a temper, man." Taylor said through gritted teeth.

"He's dehydrated and lost a lot of blood." I told Herschel as we entered the house. "Taylor is getting the medical supplies I have so you don't have to use all of yours."

"Patricia, help me!" He shouted to the woman.

We made our way up the stairs and into the room I had used during my injury.

"Tourniquet." I told Taylor as he entered the room with my bag. "There's a few bags of fluids in there, get me one rigged up."

I helped Herschel tear off Daryl's shirt, seeing the wound just below his ribcage.

"Put pressure on it." Herschel said to Patricia.

"Is there an exit wound?" I asked as I wrapped the tourniquet around his arm.

Herschel pushed Daryl over as gently as he could to look at his back. "Yes."

"Thank goodness." I breathed.

I got the fluids started to hydrate him and taped the needle down.

"Where'd you go to school?" Herschel asked as he worked on the wound.

"NYU." I answered without looking up at him. "Pre-med."

"Really?" He said, astonished. "Why didn't you finish?"

"Stupidity." I said vaguely. "Will you get me some warm water and a wash cloth, Tay?"

I dug through my bag as he nodded and took off. Rick and Shane stood watching in silence. I pulled out the morphine and needle and drew out the amount I needed.

As I administered it into his IV, I glanced up at Herschel. "So, how similar are animals and humans?"

"Pretty much the same." He said with a chuckle.

I smiled slightly.

"Is he going to be okay?" Rick asked.

Taylor returned by my side with a bowl of warm water.

"He'll be fine." He answered for us. "Just needs rest and probably another bag of fluids after this one. Pain meds and antibiotics for a few days."

"Were you pre-med too?" Herschel asked, looking at Taylor surprised.

"No." He said, looking over at the older man. "Engineer at MIT."

"The boy could break open a high end vault that could withstand a 9.0 quake in less than a minute with only a glass of water." I laughed.

"Talent run in your family?" Herschel asked.

"Alcoholism, gambling and depression does. Talent, no." I said shaking my head.

That evening, I sat beside the bed, candle light dancing across the walls around me. Daryl still hadn't woke up. I wasn't worried though. I knew he was hydrated and comfortable. I'd wiped the dirt off of him the best I could with the wash cloth and treated his wound from Andrea's gunshot. If she had moved to the left even a fraction of an inch, we would have been digging a grave instead of placing him in a bed and poking him with needles. I was still furious at her. I'd stayed inside the house, not just because I wanted to be here when Daryl woke up, but I knew if I saw her, I'd finish what Taylor had pulled me away from.

I had Taylor slip in my backpack so I could read while I waited. And my dear brother had placed a half empty bottle of vodka in it with a small note attached to it that read "Nurse Riv, This is liquid courage. For the bottle we destroyed last night. Have fun ;)" I had rolled my eyes and whispered my thanks before raising the bottle to my lips.

I had a slight buzz and made it halfway through my book before I heard a gruff voice.

"Hey." He said.

"Hey." I said in shock. "Thought you'd sleep right through the night."

I stood up and sat my book and the bottle down on the bedside table.

"Are you drinking?" He asked, eyeing the bottle curiously.

"Maybe." I laughed as I grabbed his wrist.

He jerked it away and I frowned. "I was just checking your pulse."

"'M fine." He said stubbornly.

"Whatever. Are you in any pain?" I asked. "I gave you pain medication in your IV about three hours ago. It should be starting to wear off."

"I said 'm fine." He repeated.

I threw my hands up in the air, defeated. "Fine. Didn't wanna help ya no fuckin' how."

I got up off the side of the bed, but a hand caught my arm before I could walk back over to my chair.

"'M sorry." He said.

I turned to see his ice blue eyes staring at me.

"Its okay." I shrugged. "My sister was a shrink. I get it."

He looked at me curiously.

"It's called displacement. " I explained.

"Yer a know it all." He said with a smirk.

"Nah." I said grabbing the bottle of vodka off the side of the table and taking a swig.

He reached up and took the bottle from me as it left my lips.

"Um, as your nurse, I must say I recommend against that." I said as he took a large gulp.

"Says the drunk nurse." He said handing it back to me.

He tried to sit up and groaned.

"Here, lemme help." I said, placing the bottle back on the bedside table.

"No, I got it." He said.

"There is just no helping you." I sighed.

He propped himself up on the pillows and shook his head. "So, what's the diagnosis, doc?"

"We stopped the bleeding and stitched up your wound. You were very dehydrated, apparently to the point of hallucinations, gave ya some fluids and some pain medicine. Oh, and I cleaned ya up and treated your wound from Andrea thinking you were a walker." I shrugged.

"Stupid bitch." He growled. "If I was a woman…"

"Don't worry, a woman already took care of it." I laughed.

"What'd ya do?" He asked curiously.

"Apparently according to Glenn I broke her nose." I said.

He stared at me for a moment before he started laughing.

"Well, thanks, Red." He said. "Must have'a helluva right hook."

"I grew up with three older brothers… I had to have a good swing to survive." I said.

I knew all his talking was due to the pain medication. Even though he had started to talk to me more and more with each hunt we went on, he had never talked this much nor laughed. I hated admitting it to myself, but I loved how his eyes lit up when he laughed.

_Oh, God, River. What the fuck?_ I thought to myself immediately after the thought crossed my mind.

Thankfully the door opened before my face could turn a bright shade of red. Carol emerged with two plates and a warm smile.

"I'll just step out…" I stammered, getting to my feet.

"No." She said. "You don't have to go anywhere. I want you to hear this too."

She sat down the plates on the bedside table, eyeing the vodka suspiciously.

"Thank you." She told Daryl. "You've done more for my little girl than her father did for her in her whole life."

"Nuthin' Rick or Shane wouldn't 'ave done." He grumbled.

I furrowed my eyebrows. How untrue. If they would've done it, it would be them out there, them in this bed injured… but they weren't.

"No. You did, not them." Carol said, placing a hand on top of his. "And you." She turned around to look at me. "You didn't even meet my little girl, and yet you've risked your life going out there with him. Thank you."

I nodded, feeling uncomfortable. "If it were my kid, I'd hope someone wouldn't give up looking for them."

She bent down and placed kiss on Daryl's forehead before standing up to leave.

After she exited, I glanced over nervously at Daryl, wringing my hands.

"Okay, well." I sighed. "I'll give ya some more pain medicine in your IV, which adding to that giant gulp of vodka you just took, is gonna make you feel like a million bucks, and give it a minute, then I'll take it out so you can sleep comfortably. Then I'll get outta your hair."

I walked over to my bag and pulled out the morphine and a needle.

"'M fine." He mumbled.

"Lies." I said without looking at him. "You may be alright right now, nowhere near _fine_, might I add. But within about an hour, what's left of that medicine I gave you earlier will wear off and you'll be in a world of hurt. So…" I held out my free hand, motioning with my fingers for him to hand over his arm with the IV. "Fork it over, Dixon."

He sighed. "God, yer stubborn as hell."

"You'd know all about stubborn, wouldn't ya?" I laughed.

"Alright." I said when I was done. "We'll give it about ten minutes and that bag of fluids should be done and we'll get that thing out of ya and I'll be on my way."

He nodded as I put up my supplies and walked back over to my chair beside his bed.

"Want a book?" I asked as I sat down, book and bottle back in hand.

"No." He said solemnly.

"Suit yourself." I shrugged.

We sat in silence for a while. I could see the pain medication taking effect; he slowly began to relax more.

When he spoke, I knew it had finally hit it's peak.

"So, were ya other siblins over achievers like ya?" He asked.

"So, you think I'm an over achiever?" I laughed. "If you call a twenty four year old med school drop out with four failed rehab stints an over achiever, I'd hate to see your idea of a loser."

I sat my book down and sighed. "If you're asking what my siblings did for a living, my brother Greyson was a lawyer, he took over my father's practice. Julian was an architect, Cora was a therapist and Taylor was an engineer. Were they over achievers? No. Cora was a recovering heroin addict. She counseled other recovering addicts. Greyson got caught up in really sketchy cases, but somehow would win them all. Essentially he bribed his way to the top… a crooked lawyer. Oh, the irony there, huh? Julian was… well, guess Julian was an over achiever. The jerk didn't even have a speeding ticket. Tay, he got addicted to pain medication. I did too for a while. He lived with me and had a horrible car accident. Messed him up bad. They prescribed him pain meds and it went from there… just kept escalading."

"'M sorry." He said. "I didn' know.."

"Don't say sorry." I told him. "Everyone has their secrets, everyone has skeletons in their closets. No need in being ashamed of them. It makes you who you are."

"Ya got an answer fer everythin', Red." He shook his head.

"You know it, Dixon." I sighed. "Let's get that needle outta ya."

I felt my heart begin to race as I touched his arm. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him keeping his eyes locked on me. I knew I could chalk this up to the pain medicine as well; he never looked at me long without darting his eyes elsewhere.

"There ya go." I said hastily. "Well, if you don't need anything, I'll leave ya to it."

I started to walk away from the bed but once again, a hand on my wrist stopped me.

"Don't go." He said.

_Yup, definitely pain meds talking_. I thought to myself.

"But you need to rest." I argued.

"I can rest with you in the room." He said.

"Fine. I'll go ask Maggie for some blankets and pillows to make a pallet out of." I sighed.

I slipped out of the room into the hallway and pressed myself flat against the bedroom door. _What the?_ I took in a deep breath and exhaled, trying to calm myself. I knew I was over thinking due to my alcohol consumption but I didn't want to lose my mind.

I trotted down the stairs and gave myself a pep talk along the way about how to act like I wasn't buzzed. I trudged into the living room to find Maggie, Herschel and Patricia.

"Maggie, do you mind if I borrow you for a moment?" I asked.

"Yeah." She said, standing up from the couch.

She followed me to the landing of the stairwell before I turned around to face her.

"Can I get some more blankets and pillows?" I asked.

"Yeah." She said. "Does he want to prop up or something?"

"No." I said, rolling my eyes. "He wants me to sleep in there tonight."

Her eyes widened.

"No, no. It's the pain medication talking and I'm making a pallet in the floor, so you can take your eyes back to a normal size." I said, waving my hand dismissively.

"If you say so, Riv." She laughed, heading up the stairs.

"I definitely say so." I said following her to the linen closet.

She handed me a couple blankets, a sheet and two pillows.

As she closed the door, she smiled widely. "Go get 'em, Tiger."

"Oh, no." I sighed.

I walked back to the bedroom and entered to see Daryl staring oddly at my book in front of him.

"What on earth is this shit 'bout?" Daryl asked. "There's no pictures."

"It's about a boy in high school and how he becomes friends with these two kids and..." I said, throwing down the blankets and pillows.

"Sounds like something you'd read." He cut me off snickering, tossing it to the end of his bed.

I began to arrange my make shift bed beside his. As I worked I could feel his eyes on me but I tried to pay no mind.

"Wish ya wouldn't sleep on tha floor." He said.

"Nowhere else in here to sleep. Don't suppose that desk chair would be comfy." I explained as I continued to work.

"The bed would be comfy." He said simply.

My eyes widened and I stopped in my tracks.

"You are talkin' outta your ass right now, Dixon." I laughed nervously. "You're gonna wake up in the morning and not even remember asking me to sleep in here period."

"'Course I will." He said, sleepily. "How could I forget askin' a pretty girl to sleep in the same room as me?"

"Easy. Drug induced." I said with a scoff. "Now, get some rest. If you need anything, just let me know, okay?"

I pulled his blanket up and blew out the candles beside his bed.

I snuggled down onto my pallet and adjusted myself into the most comfortable position I could find. I had already gotten into my pajamas while Daryl had slept, so there wasn't much getting ready for bed I had to do except slip beneath the sheets. I felt my eyelids begin to droop as Daryl spoke one last time.

"I will remember."

The next morning I woke up to find Daryl already awake in his bed. He had been staring down at me as I opened my eyes.

"How long have you been up?" I asked as I sat up and rubbed my eyes.

"Bout two hours." He said. "Ya know ya talk in yer sleep?"

"I've been told." I said, my face turning bright red.

"Yer cheeks match yer hair." He chuckled. "Ya didn't say anything embarrassing."

"Oh, good." I sighed. "Why didn't you wake me? I told you if you needed something to wake me up. You have to be hurting by now."

"'M fine." He said, looking away from me.

"You try too hard to put on a front, Dixon. I can see right through you. See how you looked away when you said that? Cause you were lying.. Didn't want to look me in the eyes while you were lying." I said, getting up.

I saw him roll his eyes as I walked over to my bag of medical supplies. I pulled out the bottle of pain medication pills and antibiotics and handed him some.

"Allergic to anything?" I asked.

"Nah." He said simply.

"Good. Lemme get ya some water." I said, taking the empty cup by his bed into the bathroom.

I glanced in the mirror as I filled the cup and almost choked. My hair was a mess. I tried to quickly tame it as the cup filled up.

Walking back out with a bit more confidence, I noticed he had my book in his hand once more.

I handed him his water and smiled. "It's a good book."

"'S alright, I guess." He mumbled. "Mind if I borra it?"

"Nah, have at it." I told him. "I got plenty of books in my car. I'll get changed and go get us some breakfast, okay?"

He nodded. "Thanks."

"No problem."

I grabbed my backpack and ran into the bathroom at record speed. I leaned against the closed bathroom door and sighed. _What in seven hells are you playing at, Holden?!_ I groaned and pushed myself off the door and turned on the shower.

I unbraided my hair and ran my brush through it and hopped in the stream of warm water. I tried to let my thoughts go as I bathed but it was no use. The hunter had consumed my thoughts completely. I was unsure of what to do or how to react to all this. I was intrigued by him, for some odd reason.

I finished up and turned off the faucet. Jumping out, I dried off and slipped into my clothes. I ran my brush through my hair and decided to leave it down as I glanced at myself in the mirror, brushing my teeth.

"Nice shirt." Daryl said as I stepped into the bedroom. "You even old enough to know who Bob Dylan is?"

I furrowed my eyebrows at him, frowning. "Yes, I know who Bob Dylan is."

"Name one song." He challenged me.

"Mr. Tambourine Man." I said.

"Another." He said.

"Sarah." I said, crossing my arms across my chest.

"Okay, I don't even know if that one is a Bob Dylan song." He admitted.

"Exactly." I laughed. "Admit defeat. I'll be back with some grub. Need anything else while I'm out?"

"Ya to release me from bed rest." He grumbled.

"Not gonna happen." I chuckled.

I walked out of the room and down the stairs. I said good morning to Herschel and his family as I greeted them on my way out of the house. It was early and the ground was still covered in fresh dew. The clouds still held a dark glow to them as I made my way across the yard. Not many people were up just yet. I didn't see any signs of Glenn nor Taylor.

I greeted Carol as I grew closer.

"Can I get a plate for me and one for Daryl?" I asked.

"Of course." She beamed. "How's he doin'?"

"Good." I said, smiling in return. "He'll be up and back to killin' squirrels and cutting people nasty looks in no time."

She laughed. "I'm glad to hear that."

She handed me the plates and two bottles of water. I nodded and turned around to leave but collided with someone. I yelped and almost dropped my plates.

Lori's eyes met mine. I narrowed my own green eyes when they locked with her brown and let a small smile cross my face.

"Well, good morning." I said, forcing myself to sound cheerful. "You are just positively glowing!"

She frowned at me as I pushed by her and made my way back to the house.

As I reached the door, it opened abruptly, revealing T-Dog standing there beaming.

"Mornin' sunshine." He said. "You seen your brother?"

"Nah, I think he must still be asleep." I said. "By all means, go scare him awake."

He held the door open for me and smiled. "I think I will, pretty lady."

I headed up the stairs with a smile on my face. I was glad Taylor and I had made friends with most of the group members, sans a few. We'd fallen into place in the group and these people were starting to feel like family. The only trepidation I had was the fact I knew I'd grow to care about these people, and when shit hit the fan and the inevitable happened, it would be hard to deal with.

I opened the door with much difficulty and shoved it open with my foot to see Daryl sitting at the edge of the bed putting on his shirt.

"You should let me change your bandages before you do that." I said as I entered.

He grunted and nodded.

I handed him the plate and a bottle of water and sat down beside him on the bed. We ate in silence for a while. My mind was stuck on the night prior. I wondered if he remembered asking me to sleep here or if he thought I was just a weird girl who decided to set up camp beside his bed.

"So, uh…" I said, clearing my throat. "Do you…"

"Remember?" He finished for me. "Tol' ya I would."

I could feel the color coming to my cheeks rapidly. He had caught me off guard and I wasn't sure what to say.

So, I decided to say nothing at all. I rose from the bed and placed my drink and plate on the bedside table. He placed his there too.

"I'll, uh…. Get you some bandages." I mumbled.

I darted over to my bag and pulled out what I needed without a glance over at him. I walked back over to him and placed the items on the bedside table.

"Off with it." I mumbled, pulling out a few gauze.

He huffed and pulled his shirt back off.

"Do you want to take a shower first?" I asked.

"Uh, yeah." He nodded and got up as quick as he could.

He disappeared into the bathroom. As the door clicked shut, I threw myself backwards onto the bed. I groaned and threw a pillow over my face. I wanted to scream, but decided against it.

_You're acting like a school girl with a crush! This is the end of the world! Get it together!_ I scolded myself as I heard the water turn on in the bathroom.

I got up and tried to occupy myself. I stripped the bed and walked out into the hall to fetch more sheets. I made the bed and discarded the empty breakfast plates. I organized all of our stuff and placed the antibiotics and pain medication on his bedside table with a glass for water.

My heart skipped a beat when I heard the water turn off. I braced myself.

"Foolish little girl." I muttered to myself as I fixed my hair in the mirror.

The door opened and Daryl stepped out without a shirt on, hair still glistening with water.

"Gonna bandage me up, nurse?" He said, making his way to the bed.

"Yeah." I said a little too hastily.

I walked over and pulled out the gauze and wrap and set to work. I crawled up on the bed to be able to wrap the bandage around his body. My eyes settled on the scars littering his back.

"Don't." He said.

"Don't what?" I asked, continuing to work as if I'd seen nothing.

"Say anything." He muttered.

"I didn't…" I said nonchalantly.

"Good." He said. "Ya always talkin'…."

I chuckled and finished wrapping up his wound.

"There." I said, climbing off the bed. "Good as new."

"Now, can I go outside?" He asked impatiently.

"Fine." I sighed. "But no over doin' it. You pull out those stitches and I'll kick your ass all over Georgia, ya hear me?"

"Yes ma'am." He said sarcastically.

After he'd thrown on his shirt and I'd scolded him for even looking at his crossbow, we made our way out into the sunshine. There was a slight nip in the air letting us all know that fall was creeping up on us.

The group stood there on the stairs and I eyed them curiously. I could feel the tension in the air. Maggie looked infuriated.

"What's goin' on?" I asked as we approached.

I saw Shane bend down and pull out two guns from the duffle bag at his feet.

He handed one to Daryl before he finally spoke. "You with me?"

Daryl glanced over at me before back to Shane and gave a slight nod, taking the gun from him.

Shane glanced over at me, holding out another gun. "I almost regret offering you one, Red, but you with me too?"

I took the gun and made sure the safety was on before I slid it into the back of my shorts.

"You do this and my dad will make y'all leave!" Maggie exclaimed.

"Shane, please, don't." Lori said.

"There's a barn full of walkers, we have the right to protect ourselves." Shane said, defending his actions as he continued to pass out the guns.

"Ya did get 'er good." Daryl whispered suddenly.

"Huh?" I asked, looking up from the gun in my hand.

I caught sight of Andrea in the distance, eyeing us every now and then. Her eyes were black and her nose shades of black and blue. She had a large bruise on her jaw line as well.

"Damn, guess I did." I laughed.

"Remind me not to piss ya off." He said.

I smiled, delighted he was finally starting to open up to me.

I glanced up again to see Taylor making his way over.

"This is not going to go over well." Taylor sighed as he reached us. He looked over at Daryl and a crooked smile etched across his face. "Ya see what Rocky over here did for ya?"

"I definitely dun't wanna piss her off." Daryl said, eyeing Andrea again.

"No, you sure don't, man." Taylor said seriously. "I got the scars to prove it."

"What is he doing?!" Shane yelled, looking off towards the barn.

We all glanced over as he shot to his feet and stormed off. In the distance, we could make out Rick and Herschel coming out of the woods, walkers attached at a distance to long poles in front of them.

"What the fuck?" I sighed.

I pulled the gun back out from my shorts and checked to ensure it was loaded and ready as we made our way over to them. I had a bad feeling I was going to need it.

"What are you doing man?!" Shane yelled.

"Shane, just wait…" Rick said.

"They're still people, they're just sick." Herschel said.

"People?" Shane yelled. "Would people be able to live through this?"

I jumped slightly as a gunshot rang through the air. It hit the walker in the chest, and it continued to fight against Herschel, unphased.

"Why is he still coming?!" Shane yelled, shooting the walker again in the chest.

I jumped again. I felt a hand on my back as I took the safety off my gun and raised it. I knew things were about to get out of hand.

"Shane, just wait…" Rick pleaded.

"No, man!" Shane yelled, his temper at it peak. He aimed his gun at the walkers and shot them in the head before stalking over to the barn door.

My body tensed as he started fighting against the locks.

"Shane, stop!" Lori pleaded.

But he paid no mind. Finally, the locks came undone and he flung the doors open. One by one, walkers began to make their way out of the barn.

Daryl's hand left my back as he pulled his gun out and took aim. The shots began to ring through the air as the group took down each walker as they stumbled out.

When the shots subsided, Beth rushed over to what use to be her mother, falling to her knees and sobbing; Maggie slumped to the ground beside her sister.

Everyone watched, horrified. But what was even more horrifying was when the corpse began to move. It latched onto Beth and tried to bite her. Maggie pulled her away in time as T-Dog shot the walker again, straight in the forehead, finally truly killing it.

Beth sobbed even louder, but over her sobs, came a growl. Everyone's attention went back to the barn doors as what once was a small girl emerged; short shoulder length hair and a purple shirt with a rainbow on it. _Sophia_.

I gasped and clamped my hand over my mouth as I watched the girl stumble out. Carol's scream pierced my heart as I watched her try to rush forward towards her daughter. Daryl caught her and held her back, letting the woman slump to the ground and sob uncontrollably. I felt the tears well up in my eyes as Taylor put his arm around my shoulders and pull me to his chest.

Rick walked up slowly and aimed his gun. The final shot that laid Sophia to rest seemed to ring through the air for eternity.


	6. Chapter Six: Requiem

p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-font-kerning: 14.0pt;"I slumped to the ground. Taylor knelt beside me on the ground, holding my head against his chest and running his fingers through my hair. I couldn't seem to wrap my mind around what had just happened. I knew, as well as anyone else here, the odds of Sophia being alive were slim to none. But knowing she'd been in this barn all along was unnerving. I couldn't fathom how Daryl felt. All that time he spent in the woods, the lengths he'd went to, putting his life on the line, just to look for this girl were all in / br / "Don't look. Don't look." I heard Daryl tell Carol as he helped her to her / br / She shoved him off of her once she was on her feet and stormed off. I couldn't imagine the pain she was going through right / br / I looked back to see Lori and Carl sat on the ground a ways back, Carl cradled in his mother's arms, crying. Taylor helped me to my feet as Herschel, Maggie, Beth and Patricia headed back towards the farm / br / "You okay?" Daryl asked, placing a hand on my / br / "Yeah, I'm fine." I said / br / All I could think was how I wished I would have stayed in my make shift bed this / br / br / br / br / br / A while later, after I'd wiped the stream of tears from my face, I stood waist deep in a hole I was helping T-Dog dig. Beside me, Andrea and Taylor dug one for Maggie's step-mom and next to that, Shane shoved out dirt for Maggie's step-brother, Shawn. T-Dog had decided to try to lighten the situation by pointing out how short I was. The hole he stood in with me barely came up to his thighs, yet here I was, waist deep. Other than his taunts, we'd worked in silence. I tried to ignore Shane staring at me from across the graves. I caught sight of Taylor eyeing him daringly a few / br / Daryl had taken off towards the RV after Carol not long after she'd walked away from the barn. The clouds had started to darken and the wind was blowing, as if Mother Nature was mourning along with / br / "I'll go let them know we're ready." Lori / br / I grabbed T-Dog's hand as he helped me climb out of the / br / I watched as everyone started to gather around. Herschel had put on a suit for the burial of his wife and step-son. No one said anything. Nothing needed to be said, everyone just / br / br / br / After everyone took off in different directions, I decided to try to stay occupied and offered to help burn the bodies. I moved quietly as I helped Andrea and T-Dog load the walkers onto the back of the truck. br / br / When I helped sling a body onto the bed with Andrea's help, I / br / "Listen, Andrea…" I said. I wrung my hands together. I wasn't good with apologies. In all honesty, I didn't feel I needed to apologize for anything. But to ease the tension between us, and in light of all the other drama happening in the group, I thought it best to be the bigger / br / "Don't." She said. "Don't apologize. I would've done the same thing."br / br / I nodded. "Good, cause honestly, I'd do it again. Not trying to be a bitch, but I care about Daryl. And you almost killed him."br / br / "I know." She said, lowering her head. "It was stupid."br / br / "Everyone makes mistakes. Just thank goodness you're a terrible shot from about fifty yards." I said, / br / She laughed. "Yeah, thank goodness."br / br / "Y'all gonna stop your cluckin' and help me or what?!" T-Dog / br / br / br / br / After we were done, I sprinted across the yard towards Daryl's tent. My eyes narrowed as I noticed Lori standing by / br / "What's goin' on?" I / br / "Olive Oyl here wants me to go looking for her husband." Daryl scoffed. "Herschel went missing and him and Glenn went after him."br / br / "Beth is unconscious." She stated. "She's in some catatonic shock."br / br / "You have some fuckin' nerve, woman." I growled. "He's goddamn injured and you want him to go on a search and rescue for your husband?!"br / br / She frowned. "She needs help. Daryl, you're being selfish."br / br / "I'll check her out. You know I'm trained in the medical field too. I get her dad needs to know as well." I said hatefully. "And selfish? Really?! He was out there searching for Sophia everyday! You can't even keep up with your own son 'cause you're too busy playing games with your little love triangle! But you, you better get the fuck away from him before I make you regret this. Remember what I told you about Glenn? Same applies here. This is the last time I'll fuckin' say anything like this. Next time, you'll get what Andrea did. Now get the fuck out of here."br / br / She narrowed her eyes and squared her shoulders before taking / br / I huffed and shook my head before dropping Daryl's bag and his crossbow I'd retrieved from the house beside his / br / "Damn, Red. Yer scary when ya mad." He / br / "I'll take that as a compliment." I said, shaking my head. br / br / "What happened with Glenn?" He / br / "Oh, yeah. Forgot you missed some of the action." I laughed. "I went on that run with Glenn the other day and apparently ol' Olive Oyl had requested some morning after pills 'cause she's knocked up. Almost got us killed. So, when we got back, I flipped a script on her."br / br / "I tol' ya ass not ta go." He said / br / "Yeah, yeah, I know." I sighed. "I'm gonna go check on Beth."br / br / He shook his head as I stalked off back towards the house. My mind was racing as the anger coursed through me. emWhat was wrong with her? How selfish could/em emyou get?/em br / br / I skipped up the steps and towards the room Beth called her own. Inside I found Patricia, Andrea and / br / "She won't respond." Patricia / br / "Her heart's racing and she's burning up." Andrea / br / I nodded and sat down on the bed beside the blonde. I sat my backpack down and fished out a small flashlight. I pulled open her eyelids and flashed the light into each of her eyes before I took hold of her wrists to check her pulse. I felt her forehead, then turned to look at / br / "She's in shock." I said, clicking the flashlight off. "She just needs rest. Her pulse is strong and she's responsive. Give her time. I'll keep checking on her. Let me know if she becomes coherent. If she doesn't wake in about two hours, I'll need to set up an IV to make sure she doesn't get dehydrated."br / br / I stood up and exited the room. Before I could make it to the stairs, I heard footsteps behind / br / "River." Maggie / br / "Yeah?" I asked, turning to face her. br / br / "Thanks." She said, wrapping her arms around me and pulling me into a tight / br / "No problem." I sighed, hugging her back. "I'm sorry for what happened out there."br / br / "It's not your fault." Maggie reassured me. "You don't believe my dad knew that little girl was in there, do you?"br / br / "Of course, not!" I / br / She smiled and nodded before walking off back towards her sister's / br / br / br / br / That evening I sat around the table in the Greene's dining room for supper. Poor Carol looked a mess. She barely ate. I couldn't blame her. She had held onto the hope that her little girl would return to her, only to find that she was just a few yards away from her the whole time, in the worst twist of / br / "Has anyone seen Lori?" Maggie asked as she approached with a basket of / br / Everyone shook their / br / "Carl, when's the last time you saw your mom?" Shane / br / "This afternoon," He / br / "Lori asked me earlier to look in on Carl, but she didn't say anything else." Lori / br / "Think she went looking for them?" Maggie asked, referring to Herschel, Rick and / br / "She asked Daryl earlier to go looking for them in town." I / br / "And you two didn't say anything?" Carol / br / "We're not her damn keeper!" I / br / "Don't cuss in the house." Patricia said / br / Shane huffed and took off towards the cars. br / br / "Shane, wait!" T-Dog yelled, sprinting after the / br / I scoffed and shook my head as I poked the piece of apricot on my plate with a bit more force than necessary. br / br / These people were magnets for drama; always thinking about themselves and nothing about others. It was gonna end up getting people killed. br / br / "So, now four people are missing?" Taylor / br / "Guess so." I shrugged. "Glenn is fine…"br / br / I knew that's what Taylor was getting at. br / br / He nodded. "I know…"br / br / br / br / br / Only one of the missing group members returned that evening. Shane had pulled up with Lori, a bloody gash on her forehead, saying she'd been in an accident. As she asked everyone where Rick was, it became clear Shane had lied to get her back to the farm. He'd stated he had to keep her and the baby safe, spilling the beans to everyone about her pregnancy. I felt sorry for Carl that he had to find out that way. After rolling my eyes at the pair and reassuring Maggie that Glenn would return safe and sound, I'd helped Daryl to his tent, with much bitching from his part that he wasn't an imbecile. I'd huffed off to retrieve my tent and moved it closer to Daryl's so I could keep an eye on him. This also had received great bitching from him but I worked in silence and let him ramble /  
>br  Taylor moved his tent closer as well, being the loving nosy brother he was. We built a small fire near our tents since we were far away from the others and the nights were starting to cool off / br / br / br / br / I lay in my sleeping bag that night staring blankly at the roof of my tent. I felt sorry for Maggie and Carol. Their loved ones were either gone or wanted so desperately to be gone. I couldn't imagine ever feeling that low. I'd lost my parents but never once considered checking out. Even though my actions throughout life had been nothing shy of self destructive, it wasn't because I was consciously thinking I wanted to / br / Cora had taken our parents death the worst. She fell apart. She left home, left school. She bounced around from place to place, city to city, strung out on heroin. It took her three years, two stare downs with death and an abusive boyfriend before she finally called. She had almost pulled a real Jim Morrison on us. We had all flown out to Paris to get her. She was a mess. She'd easily lost fifty pounds; weight the girl didn't have to lose to begin with. Her arm was covered in needle marks. I remember seeing her in the airport, a hallow shell of what used to be my sister. She'd sobbed uncontrollably when she saw us. br / br / "Hey." I heard Daryl's voice say, breaking my train of / br / "Yeah?" I called back, wiping the tears from my / br / "Come here." He / br / I let out an aggravated sigh, got out of my sleeping back and crawled out of my / br / "You okay?" I asked, as I climbed into his / br / He sat propped up in his sleeping bag, camping lantern on. br / br / "Got any liquor left?" He asked. br / br / I chuckled. "Yeah. Wanna drink with me?"br / br / He nodded. I slid out of the tent without a word and fetched my backpack from my / br / "You been reading?" I asked as I entered again, nodding to my book that laid beside / br / "Yeah, a lil," He admitted, rubbing the back of his / br / "It's good, right?" I said, unzipping my / br / I pulled out the bottle and two small plastic cups. br / br / "It's alrigh'." He / br / I poured a little of the clear liquid into each and handed one to him. br / br / "Cheers." I said, raising my / br / "Cheers." He mumbled, bumping his glass against / br / br / br / br / A few hours later, we'd reached the bottom of the bottle. I was giggly from my portion of the undertaking. I could see the effects the alcohol was having on Daryl as well. He was relaxed and comfortable; unlike I'd ever seen / br / "Hang on; I'll go sneak some from Tay." I / br / I got out of Daryl's tent and stumbled slightly over to Taylor's. I tried hard to enter it quietly and not wake him up, but that was hindered when I tripped over his / br / "Owf!"br / br / "Dammit, what the holy hell are you doin' in here, ya crazy bitch?!" Taylor / br / "Shhhhh!" I hissed / br / "Are you drunk?" He said, lips curling up into a / br / "Shhh." I hissed again. "Maybe. Now fork over whatever you got left. I'll get ya back."br / br / "You know the cost." He smiled, reaching for his bag. "What's your poison? Vodka, whiskey, gin, tequila, bourbon?"br / br / "Goddamn, you got all that?" I said eyes / br / "Course I do." He laughed. "I don't breeze through it like you. Why do you like drinkin' alone?"br / br / "I'm not drinkin' alone. Ass." I / br / Eyes widening, he laughed. "You're drinking with Daryl?!"br / br / "SHHHHHH." I hissed once more. "Just gimme the damn liquor."br / br / He chuckled, handing me his whole bag. "Take it all. You need to get laid."br / br / "Oh, god, please stop." I said, taking the bag and darting out of the / br / "Look what I got." I said doing a little dance as I entered Daryl's tent. br / br / His eyes widened as I showed him the bottles. br / br / br / br / br / I yawned and stretched as I moved slightly, waking up just enough to realize I was still in bed. My head was hurting and I groaned, deciding immediately I needed more sleep. I snuggled back up against him and wrapped my arm around his waist, his arm pulling me closer to his chest. I let out a content sigh as I began to drift back into / br / emWait/em…br / br / My eyes flew open. My head was laid against Daryl's chest, arm around his middle. His arm was around my shoulders, nuzzling me closer to him. He let out a sigh as my eyes widened to the size of / br / emOh, fuckin' / /embr / I couldn't slip out. His arm was tight around me. I started to panic, unsure if he even remembered me falling asleep here. Did I even remember?br / br / I recalled getting cold the night before and Daryl offering to let me slip into the sleeping bag for warmth. That was it. That was all I remembered. br / br / emOh, / br / "Hey River, wake up." I heard Taylor's voice / br / emOh, son of a bitch!/embr / br / I shut my eyes as tight as I could possibly get them as if this would make me disappear. br / br / I heard the tent next to Daryl's unzip and Taylor's loud laugh. br / br / "Shit." I / br / I watched as Taylor's shadow came across the tent and stopped. br / br / He cleared his throat and laughed once more. "So, uh… River… if you're in there…you should get up."br / br / "He figured it out, huh?" Daryl's voice whispered in my / br / I nearly shot out of my skin. br / br / "Sorry, didn't mean at scare ya." He laughed lightly. br / br / "I might as well tell him." I whispered. "He'll come in here. I'm not kidding."br / br / I sighed and got up out of the sleeping bag and made my way over to the door. I unzipped the flap and stuck my head out. br / br / Taylor's laughter filled the air. br / br / "Shut your damn face, take your bag and fuck off." I hissed, tossing his bag he'd given me with the liquor in it out of the door and darting back / br / "You know my price, princess." Taylor said as he walked / br / "Oh, God," I sighed. "He's never gonna let me live this down. And we didn't even do anything!"br / br / Daryl shook his head as he sat up. br / br / "Uh, I'll slip out and go change." I said, grabbing my backpack. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep."br / br / "It's okay. I told ya to." He said, / br / "Oh. Okay." I said. "I'll see ya in a bit."br / br / I smiled at him before I ducked out of the tent and darted into my / br / I sat down on my sleeping bag, my eyes widening again as realization set in. I sighed and began to get ready for the / br / br / br / As I slipped into the bright sunlight, I scowled. The group was huddled together around the farm house. I saw Glenn and my heart skipped a beat. I whispered my thanks to the breeze that blew by me as I raced towards / br / "Oh, thank God!" I said as I flung my arms around / br / "Hey you," He laughed, wrapping me up in a tight / br / "I was so worried." I sighed as I pulled away from / br / "Heard you been busy," He smiled. br / br / "Shut up." I said, rolling my / br / "What's goin' on?" Daryl / br / "We came across a group of men in town. A boy fell on a gate, impaling his leg. We brought him back here." Rick said. "I need to talk to you alone, Daryl."br / br / Daryl nodded and followed the man away from the / br / "So…" Taylor said, shifting his weight from foot to / br / "No." I snapped. "Don't even. Nothing happened."br / br / "Wait… what?" Glenn asked, raising an / br / "What's goin' on guys?" Maggie asked as she walked / br / "River slept in Daryl's tent last night." Taylor / br / "Oh, for fuck's sake," I sighed, as Maggie and Glenn's jaws dropped. "I'm just gonna walk away calmly."br / br / I started across the yard towards the back of the house. I heard someone running up to me just a moment / br / "Hey." Maggie said as she came up beside / br / "Hey." I said without looking over at / br / "Let's go pick some apples." She / br / I nodded and followed her to the apple tree around the back of the house. I slipped my backpack off and sat it down at the base of the trunk, along with my bow and quiver. We arranged the baskets under the tree before climbing / br / Perched high in the apple tree, I saw Maggie staring at me from the other / br / "Nothing happened." I said, dropping an apple onto the ground, missing the basket / br / "I didn't say it did." She smiled. "What did happen?"br / br / "We just drank some and talked." I shrugged. "I got cold, he let me sit with him in his sleeping bag and we passed out."br / br / Maggie smiled widely. "I think he's really into you."br / br / br / br / br / I walked with Maggie, basket of apples in hand, around the house. We'd spent the good part of the morning high in the tree. We'd decided since today was a warm day, and probably one of the last we'd see for a while since fall was creeping up on us, to take a dip in the pond out back. I walked into the house with Maggie to get ready. After we'd slipped on our bathing suits, we set out, towels in hand and our spirits / br / "This will be so relaxing, and almost feels normal." I sighed as we reached the / br / "Let's do this." Maggie / br / I quickly shed my t-shirt and shorts, down to my black and white polka dot bikini, and rushed into the cool / br / br / br / We spent the next hour splashing around like the world wasn't destroyed. We floated and swam and chatted away as if we'd been friends since birth. It was nice being able to talk to Maggie about anything and nothing at all. br / br / Once we started to prune, we slipped out of the water. I laid out the blanket I'd brought as Maggie got the snacks she'd packed; crackers, peanut butter and apple / br / As we sat eating, a noise came from behind us. We whirled around, knives already in hand, to see Shane. He threw his hands up in mock surrender and / br / "Hey ladies," He / br / "Hey." Maggie said / br / "I was just wantin' to talk to River." Shane / br / "Will you be okay?" Maggie / br / I nodded. "Yeah."br / br / I widened my eyes / br / Maggie stood up cautiously and grabbed her clothes before setting off past Shane. She gave a quick glance back at me. I knew she was going to go tell someone. br / br / "What can I help ya with Shane?" I / br / "Well…" He laughed, walking over to me. "I was just wondering…"br / br / He reached out and brushed his hand over my shoulder and I shuttered. My breathing began to race. br / br / "… you know I like you, River. Why don't we stop kidding ourselves and give in?" He said / br / "Give in to what?" I / br / "To our desires. I know you want me too." He replied, brushing a strand of my wet hair out of my face. "Let's face it. I'm your only option. Glenn is your friend, and if you haven't banged him by now, you're not gonna. T-Dog doesn't seem like your type, ol' Dale is out of his league when it comes to ya, Daryl -" He laughed. "That redneck wishes."br / br / I felt the anger wash over me, consuming every last fiber of my being. My hands began to shake as I felt myself losing control. I shoved Shane back as hard as I / br / "You shut your mouth!" I / br / He raised his eyebrows. "I like a girl with some spunk. But you're a fiery thing. What did I do? Hit a nerve about the redneck? Is that it?"br / br / "Stop calling him redneck." I / br / I glanced down to see the knife laying just a ways away on the blanket. emStupid girl/em, I thought to myself. emWhy didn't you keep that in your hand?/embr / br / Shane must've seen me look because by the time I locked eyes with him again, I could see the anger burning behind them. He lunged forward before I could even comprehend what was happening and grabbed me around my throat. I was lifted off my feet and immediately felt my back scrape against the tree behind me as my head hit the trunk / br / I was slightly dazed for a second from the impact. I was fighting against him as hard as I could as I tried desperately to gasp for air. I could see it in his eyes - he wasn't going to stop till I stopped / br / I felt my strength start to falter as my mind became fuzzy. Of all the ways to go in this new world, I was going to be strangled by a psycho ex-deputy because I didn't like him. / br / "Drop 'er!" I heard a gruff voice / br / I was let go of, sliding painful down the ragged bark of the tree. I gasped and coughed; my throat was so sore it brought tears to my eyes to even breathe. I looked up to see Daryl standing there, the meanest look I'd ever seen on his face, crossbow pointed at Shane's / br / "Look, girly. Your boyfriend is here." Shane / br / "Back away from 'er," Daryl demanded, inching / br / "Or what redneck?" Shane / br / "Or this arrow goes through yer forehead." Daryl replied. "Now move it!"br / br / Shane threw his hands up once more and laughed. He took a few steps away from me, shaking his head. br / br / Glancing over at me, he smiled. "Have fun with your redneck, princess. We'll chat later."br / br / Daryl's aim followed him as he disappeared into the woods. As soon as he was out of sight, he rushed over to / br / "You alright?" He / br / "Yeah." I said quietly, hand still on my / br / "C'mon, let's go get ya patched up." He said, helping me to my / br / br / br / As we approached the house and the group, he started to veer towards the right, away from our tents. br / br / "Where we goin'?" I / br / "Pit stop." Daryl said / br / Rick eyed us suspiciously as we approached / br / "What happened?" He asked as he glanced at my / br / "Yer boy attacked her. She and Maggie were swimming in the pond. Maggie came running over to me saying Shane had come out there and wanted to talk to River alone. When I got out there he had her by her throat off the ground against a tree." Daryl explained with malice in his voice. "Look at her throat!"br / br / Rick sighed and his eyes dropped to the ground for a moment. "I'm so sorry, River."br / br / "Ya gonna take care of this or am I?" Daryl asked. br / br / "I'll handle him." Rick said quietly. "Stay far away from him until then, River. I knew he was losing it, but I didn't think he was already gone."br / br / Daryl nodded before I could even speak. He grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the man and over towards our / br / "Get in." He said, shoving the flap of his tent open. "I'll get ya med bag."br / br / I didn't argue with him. Mainly because I knew it would hurt like hell if I did. I climbed into his tent and sat down beside his sleeping / br / "On the bag," He said, pointing to the sleeping bag as he came / br / "Get me something for your cuts. Yer back looks like Wolverine got 'hold o' ya." He said, sitting down beside me. "And some pain medicine. Yer hurtin', I'm sure."br / br / "I can't swallow them." I said as I handed him the alcohol and / br / "I'll get yer bruther so he can give ya summat liquid shit." He said. "Turn around. This is gonna sting."br / br / br / br / br / A while later, I lay in Daryl's sleeping bag. He had insisted I stay where I was. I'd agreed just to make him happy. I stared at the ceiling of the tent, mind a blur. br / br / "Where is she?" I heard Taylor / br / "In my tent," Daryl / br / A moment later, the tent door flew open as Taylor came in, Daryl right behind him. I could see the outline of a black eye forming on Taylor's left / br / "You went and found him, didn't you?" I said / br / He nodded. "I told ya I was gonna end up killin' him, didn't I?"br / br / "Yeah, ya did." I / br / I groaned and coughed, putting my hand up to my / br / "C'mon, let's get ya some medicine so you'll feel better." Taylor said, taking my medical supply / br / "Were ya in med school too, man?" Daryl asked as he watched / br / "Nope, just a needle junkie for a few years," He answered without looking / br / I frowned as I saw Taylor was almost / br / "What's wrong?" Daryl / br / "She hates needles." Taylor said for / br / "Ya were a nurse and I've seen some of yer tattoos. How's that work?" He / br / "I can give shots and stuff but getting them is different. And tattoo guns barely break the first few layers of skin, shots and IVs go a lot further." I / br / "Hey, I brought ya some of yer books from yer car." Daryl said / br / I knew he was trying to keep my mind off Taylor coming at me with a / br / "Thanks." I said with a smile. "What did you bring?"br / br / I scrunched up my face and drew in a quick breath as I felt the needle go into my skin. br / br / "Uh, Harry Potter wizard guy," Daryl said as he took the books out of his bag. "The Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye. "br / br / "Great choices," I said. "I won't be able to finish all those."br / br / "Sure ya will." Daryl said. "While ya restin'."br / br / "Resting?" I asked. "It's just my throat."br / br / "I'm with Daryl." Taylor said as he put a bandage on my arm. "You stay put. You get in a tricky situation, you can yell for help."br / br / I rolled my eyes. br / br / "Roll 'em all ya want." Daryl said. "Ya trapped. And ya sleep in someone else's tent from now on. Dun't want ya alone. Dunno what that psycho might try 'nd pull."br / br / My mouth dropped open to protest but Taylor snapped his fingers. "Don't argue."br / br / "Did you just snap your fingers at me like a dog?" I asked, raising my / br / "Yes, I did. Now, obey!" He laughed. br / br / "This is my own personal hell." I / br / br / br / br / That evening I sat in Daryl's tent, snuggled up in his sleeping bag with my sweatpants on, book in hand. He'd given me The Great Gatsby to start off with and it was only half a day into my sentence, but I'd already made it halfway / br / "River!" Maggie / br / I looked up from my task of sharpening my knife as I saw the brown haired girl running towards us in a panic. br / br / "It's Beth!" She yelled. "Daddy needs help!"br / br / I jumped to my feet and darted to my tent for my bag of medical supplies. I followed the brown haired girl with haste into the farm / br / As I reached the landing, I could see in the room. There was blood all over the / Entering the room, I saw where the blood was coming from… her / br / I cringed slightly as I slung my bag onto the bed and ripped it open. br / br / "You were supposed to be watching her!" Maggie yelled to / br / I laid out my supplies and quickly began to stitch up her wrist, Herschel on the other side of the bed stitching up the other. I could see Maggie panicking from the other side of the / br / "She's gonna be okay…" I assured her without looking / br / "She had to find her own reasons to live…" Andrea / br / "Are you fuckin' kidding me?!" I snapped. "Get the fuck outta here!"br / br / "What happened?" Taylor's stunned voice / br / "Tay, get me some pain medicine ready." I said, starting to feel myself / br / "Yeah," His voice was / br / I could tell by his reaction he was starting to care for the blonde. I hoped his emotions wouldn't cloud his mind. I needed him right / br / "Taylor..." I said, glancing up at / br / He stood frozen in the doorway looking on at the scene. Daryl crept up behind him, eyes wide as he took in what was going / br / "Now, Taylor!" I / br / He began to move with / br / "Daryl." I said, without a glance up. "Will you dig through that bag and find gauze and tape?"br / br / "Uh, yeah," He mumbled, / br / As I cut the thread and finished up, I held out my hand as if he knew what to hand / br / "I, uh…" He / br / "Sorry. I need gauze." I said. br / br / He placed the large gauze in my hand. "Now, tape. Get another ready for Herschel."br / br / He grunted in reply as I fixed the bandage over the girl's stitched up / br / "Tourniquet," I / br / "What are you giving her?" Maggie asked. br / br / "Morphine for the pain," I answered without looking up. br / br / I could see Taylor's hands shaking as I administered the medicine. Once I was done, I pulled the tourniquet off and reached over, placing my hand on top of / br / "I got it." I said. "Thanks…"br / br / br / br / br / Once I returned to the tent and snuggled down, I heard footsteps approaching. br / br / "Knock, knock." I heard Maggie say from outside the / br / "Come in." I said as loud as I / br / She frowned as she entered. "I brought ya some soup. I'm so sorry!"br / br / She sat the soup down and flung her arms around me, squeezing / br / "Ouch." I / br / "Oh, I'm sorry." She jerked away quickly. "I should have never left ya alone with him!"br / br / "You did the right thing, Maggie." I reassured her. "If you hadn't gone and got Daryl, there's no telling what he would've done to BOTH of us. And no one would've ever known."br / br / She nodded. "But still, I could've done something. Hit him with a pan."br / br / I chuckled. "I'm pretty sure we didn't pack a pan to go swimming."br / br / She / br / "Thank you for helping Beth." She said. "You're a good friend."br / br / "You're welcome." I said with a smile. "With you being with Glenn and Taylor and Beth talking, it's like you're practically family now."br / br / "So, does that mean Daryl is family now too?" She asked, raising her / br / I laughed. "No because we're not together."br / br / "If you say so. But I see you have a guard dog." She said, nodding towards the tent / br / "What?" I / br / "Daryl." She said. "He's sat out there the whole time you've been resting; won't move an inch. Asked Glenn and Taylor if they'd make sure they didn't leave your side if he decided to go hunting tomorrow."br / br / "Oh." I said, blush rising in my / br / "Get some rest." She said, placing a hand on top of mine. "I'll come check on you tomorrow."/span/p 


	7. Chapter Seven: Reunion

I woke up the next morning feeling as if an anvil had been dropped on my throat and someone had forced me to swallow barbed wire. I rolled over to find a pudding cup, a bottle of water and a note beside the sleeping bag. I rubbed my eyes as I sat up, grabbing the note first.

I didn't recognize the hurried scribbled handwriting.

_River,_

_Left ya some breakfast that'd be easy on ya throat. Didn't want to wake ya. Taylor is by the fire if you need him. I went huntin' for a while. Won't be gone long._

_REST. No arguments._

_Daryl  
><em>

A crooked smile stretched across my face as I stared at the letter. I oddly liked the fact that he had cared enough to think of me before he left to go hunt. I'd never had breakfast in bed before. Even if it was just water and a pudding cup.

After I ate and got dressed, I stepped out of the tent to find Taylor cleaning his gun by the fire. Even though Daryl was already gone, it was still pretty early. The dew was still fresh on the grass and the air still held the morning's chill.

"Morning sunshine," He said looking up.

"Mornin'." I whispered.

My throat was hurting worse than it had yesterday. But I wasn't going to tell anyone that. Especially not Taylor.

"How ya feeling?" He asked as I sat down on the log beside him.

I pulled the sleeves of my sweater down over my hands and huddled up.

"Alright." I said. "How long has he been gone?"

"'bout five hours," He shrugged. "Ya know, I think he's really startin' to care for ya."

I looked over at him and narrowed my eyes.

He laughed. "No hateful looks. This is me being dead serious right now, River. No joking. He woke me up at the ass crack of dawn just to sit out here and keep watch over you."

I gave a slight smile. "Well, that's kinda sweet. How's Beth?"

"Good." He said, lowering his head. "She's doing well."

"Spill it, Tay. What's goin' on?" I asked.

"I hate that she did that. I hate that she didn't think she could talk to me. We'd got really close lately, and it hurt me to think that she'd be okay with just checking out." He sighed.

I felt a pang in my heart. I knew my brother had started to get close to the young blonde and that her suicide attempt had rattled him, but I didn't realize how much. I felt like a horrible sister for not noticing and an even worse one for not reaching out to him.

"I'm sorry, Tay." I said, placing my hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry that I haven't been a good sister and asked how this was affecting you."

He smiled and patted my hand. "It's okay. You've had things goin' on too. We're strong. We got this."

"Damn right we do." I said.

We both looked up as we heard a car crunching down the gravel driveway of the farm. We looked on curiously in silence as the silver SUV pulled to a stop in front of the house. Rick and Shane got out of the car; Rick walking to the back and opening the boot. A young brown haired boy, blind folded, emerged with Rick's help. I watched as the boy limped along across the yard, lead by Rick, and back towards the shed he was being kept in.

"I thought they were taking him and dropping him off." Taylor said as he put his knife in its stealth.

He rose from the log and held out his hand. I took it as he helped me to my feet.

"Let's get you your meds and change your bandages, then we'll go see what's goin' on." He said.

After we'd changed my bandages, we set off across the yard. Rick stood on the front porch, along with Herschel and Dale. They seemed to be in a debate about something. None of them looked happy.

"You can't be serious." I heard Dale exclaim as we drew closer.

"What's goin' on guys?" Taylor asked.

"We took Randall eighteen miles out to leave him. He started talking about how he went to school with Maggie and he knew the location of the farm. We can't just let him go. If he finds his group, he could bring them back here for revenge." Rick explained.

"So, we just execute him? Is that what you're saying?" Dale asked. "Do you two agree with this?"

"I do." Taylor answered. "I wouldn't feel comfortable letting him go if he knew where we were."

"So, just kill the kid?" Dale asked eyes wide in shock.

"That's the only option, seems like." I said quietly.

"If we do this, where's our humanity?" He argued.

"We don't have the luxury of humanity all the time anymore." I said. "If I had to choose between humanity and surviving, I'm sorry, I'm going with surviving."

He shook his head. "I thought for sure you'd agree with me, River."

"I'm sorry, Dale. I agree with Tay, I wouldn't feel safe." I said shrugging. "I know Herschel couldn't rest easy knowing this boy knows his daughter and where their home is."

"I just won't him gone. I don't care how." Herschel said.

Dale looked to Rick. "Give me time t talk to people…"

"You've got today. We reconvene before sunset and discuss it."

"Thank you." Dale said. With that, he walked away, not looking at anyone.

"Thank you guys," Rick said. "I don't like this…"

"Who would?" Taylor asked, shaking his head.

A few hours later I found myself back in Daryl's tent, propped up in the sleeping bag, finishing up _The Great Gatsby_. I'd been in here for an hour or so. Why I didn't go to my own tent was beyond me. Well, not entirely. I wanted to be near his scent. His sleeping bag smelled of the woods, cigarettes and oddly enough, vanilla. After we had spoke to Dale, Herschel and Rick, we'd come back and gathered up our dirty clothes. I'd grabbed what I could find of Daryl's lying around his tent without going through anything of his. It was the least I could do.

I'd washed the clothes in a large bucket I'd got from Carol while Taylor sat by the fire, heating up some beans for lunch. I rigged up some rope between two nearby trees and hung our clothes out to dry. We spent the next little while after we finished our lunch sharpening our knives and arrows and cleaning our guns. Since Shane had passed out all of Rick's supply of guns, we'd snuck his back to him, and pulled our cars over by our tents and got our own choice weapons from the trunk of the Impala.

Taylor had got out his trusty 9mm Glock, two hunting knives, a machete and hammer. I didn't quite understand the hammer, but he swore by it. I thought for sure after all the times when we'd been on our own and he'd pull it out and I'd yell _'Hammer time_!' that he'd give it up. But he didn't. I had got out a Beretta 92 FS Inox, two hunting knives as well, to go along with my trusty bow and arrows.

Now, after an hour or so of reading, I heard footsteps approaching the tent. I tensed up a bit, even though Taylor was just outside by the fire.

The door of the tent flipped open suddenly and I jumped.

"Sorry," Daryl said as he entered. "Didn't mean ta scare ya."

I sighed. "Its okay."

"Ya feelin' alright?" He asked as he laid down his crossbow and sat down.

"Hey…" He said suddenly before I could answer. "Where are my clothes?" He looked around the tent curiously.

"I washed them." I said. "I hung them out to dry on the two trees over there."

"Why?" He asked, his eyebrows knotting together.

"Um… because they were dirty and I was doing laundry and it was the least I could do after all you've done for me." I said cautiously.

"Ya don't owe me anythin'." He said flatly.

"I know I don't owe you." I said. "I wanted to do somethin' for you."

"Ya don't have ta." He said, looking down at the ground.

I sighed. "I get your not use to people doing things for you. But get over it. Cause I will."

Before he could argue, Taylor called from outside the tent.

"Hey Daryl, Rick wants ya." He said.

"I'll be back." Daryl said without looking at me.

I sighed and crawled out behind him, passing the men.

"Where you think you're going?" Taylor asked.

"To see Maggie," I said without looking back.

"I'm wat-"

"If you say I'm watching you or anything like that, I will turn around and hurt you." I shouted the best I could.

"Fine! I won't say it then! But just know, that's exactly what I was gonna say!" He yelled back.

I found Maggie in the kitchen with Patricia and Beth.

"How ya feelin'?" I asked Beth as I sat down beside her at the wooden table.

She gave a small sheepish smile. "I'm alright."

"Good." I nodded. "You gave us a right scare. Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah," She said with a nod.

"Do you like Taylor?" I asked. "I'm not tryin' to be the nosy sister, but it's just, when all that happened, it's really took a toll on him. He really cares about you."

She smiled. "Really? Yeah, I guess I do kind of like him. He's funny and sweet."

"Wait… is there another Taylor?" I asked, smiling.

"The one and only," She chuckled.

"Well, that's good. I forget sometimes that Taylor can be sweet and loving." I said. "He really does like you; a lot, actually. Just be up front and honest with him. It hurt him bad that you didn't feel you could talk to him."

"I just…"

I shook my head and raised my hand to stop her. "You don't have to explain anything to me. I get it."

She smiled, leaning over; she wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into a tight hug.

"Thanks. Taylor is lucky to have a sister like you." She said.

I hugged her back. "I could say the same about Maggie."

"Aw, guys." Maggie said.

"Don't get sappy on us." I laughed.

"So, tell me more about Taylor." Beth said. "He was an engineer, right?"

"Yeah. He graduated from MIT. He worked in the engineering department of a college in the city. He is wicked smart. He was always building stuff when we were younger. Tore up so my Easy Bake oven for parts." I said. "The boy is a genius. My dad had this stand up safe, about six feet tall. It was state of the art, y'know? Reinforced steel, 10 point gears, could withstand a 9.0 earthquake… well, when we were 13, we got in trouble for sneaking out with Glenn to go to a local theatre that was having an all day Star Wars marathon. Of course, we got caught and grounded. They took away my record player and took away Taylor's tool kit. We were nerds. Well, the next day when mom and dad went to work, we snuck in their bedroom. Taylor had a glass of water, I had no idea what he thought he was about to do. He sat the glass of water on it and started turning the dial. I be damned, just a moment later, that safe door swung open. I was shocked. We got our stuff out. The day before our grounding was up we snuck back in and put them back. Parents were never the wiser."

"Wow." Maggie said. "He really knows his stuff."

"Oh, yeah. He had offers to build shit for NASA." I said.

"Whoa, that's impressive," Beth sighed. "How did the glass of water work?"

"The gears were wound so tight in the safe to help reinforce it and keep it locked even during a quake, that whenever you passed a combination code it let out slightly, causing the water to ripple." I explained. "So, he knew when he was hitting a code. We've known the combination ever since. Dumbfounded our siblings how we figured it out. We used that information to get what we wanted so many times."

"You sound so proud of your brother when you talk about him." Maggie said beaming.

"Oh, yeah. I'm very proud of my brother. So, what else ya wanna know about the elusive Jordan Taylor Holden?" I asked.

"When is your birthday?" Beth asked. "And who's older?"

"January 18th." I said. "And Taylor is by four minutes. And he holds that over my head constantly!"

"It must be so weird being a twin." Maggie said.

"Nah, not really," I shrugged. "We're super close; much closer than regular siblings. It's like we know what the other is thinking and feeling without having to say a word. It's like coming into life with a best friend already."

We spent the next hour chatting about the boys. I dished information on Taylor and Glenn as the girls listened intently.

When our stomachs started to growl, we decided to head outside to see if supper was under way. The sky was shades of orange and pink as sunset approached.

"Where's Daryl?" Maggie asked.

"I dunno…" I shrugged.

"There he is." Beth said, pointing towards the shed.

I glanced over to see him walking into the barn where Randall was being held. I frowned. _What was he doing there?_

"I'll be back." I said to the girls.

Curiosity had got the best of me as I crossed the yard. I paid no mind to the rest of the group as I passed. My mind was racking the possibilities of what he could be doing with the young boy.

As I approached, I could hear the sounds of the boy sobbing, begging.

I walked into the doorway silently. I watched as Daryl hit the boy hard in the jaw.

"Tell me!" He shouted.

The boy looked beyond Daryl, straight at me. His eyes widened.

"Please, help me! Make him stop!" He pleaded.

Daryl whirled around. "What are ya doin' here?!"

"I saw you come in here. I.."

"Go!" He shouted.

"No! Please, help!" Randall yelled.

Daryl turned around and hit the boy again. "Shut up! Don't talk to her!"

Daryl rushed over to me, grabbing me by the arm and pulled me out of the barn.

"What do ya think yer doin'?!" He hissed.

"I can help." I said, ignoring his question.

He raised his eyebrows. "Ya think ya can help?" He chuckled. "No way."

"I'm serious." I said. "He'll talk to me before he will you."

"Yer not goin' in there alone," He said sternly.

"I never said that, did I?" I told him.

"Fine," He said. "Five minutes. That's it."

"'s all I need." I smiled.

We walked back into the shed. Randall sat against the wall on the floor, tied up. His eyes widened as we entered, wiggling against his restraints.

"So… who were you with before all this?" I asked. "Where is your group?"

"I'll talk to you. Alone." He said, eyeing Daryl behind me.

"No way," Daryl said.

"Listen… Randall, right?" I said, inching closer. I bent down in front of him so I would be eye level with him. "You tell us what we want to know, or you're gonna wish I'd never showed up. Got it?"

He snickered. "You're gonna make me wish you'd left me with him?"

I smiled at him. "Yes."

Before he could respond, I hit him hard in the nose then kicked him in his bad leg. As he yelped in pain and slumped over, I pulled out my knife and quick as a wink, shoved him back up right and held it to his throat. I heard Daryl move closer behind me as I got so close to the boy.

"Tell me or I'll slit your throat." I hissed.

"You're crazy!" He yelled.

"I can show you crazy, honey. I'm just getting warmed up. So, I'll ask you again. Who were you with and where is your group?" I said.

He glared at me, terror in his eyes.

"Alright, just know you brought this on yourself." I sighed.

I raised my knife just above his bad leg. Just as I was about to stab it through it, he yelled.

"Stop! Stop! Wait! I'll tell you!" He yelled.

"Spill it." I said.

"Fine!" He yelled, sobbing.

"How many were in your group?" I asked.

"About thirty men." He said through choked sobs.

"Are they armed?" I inquired.

"Yes, Heavy stuff; Automatics." He answered. "One time I was with them, we came across an older man and his two teenage daughters. One night we found this little camp site, a man and his two daughters; teenagers, real young, real cute. Like her." He nodded towards me.

"Watch yerself, boy." Daryl growled.

"I'm sorry. The dad had to watch… while these guys… and they didn't even kill 'em afterwards. They just… they just made him watch. His daughters, just, just left 'em. But I didn't touch those girls. I swear…" Randall continued.

I glanced back at Daryl before I rose to my feet. Before I knew it, Daryl was beside me, pushing me away. He kicked the boy as hard as he could in his bad leg.

The boy yelled in pain. "You gotta believe me, man! I ain't like that!"

Daryl kicked him over and over.

"Have fun." I said as I passed Daryl.

I walked out of the barn and headed back towards Maggie and Beth. Before I could get far, I heard Daryl shout my name.

"What?" I asked, looking around.

He rushed over to me. He didn't look happy.

"I need at talk to ya." He said as he reached me.

"Okay. What's up?" I asked.

"I definitely don't want ya ta be alone, okay? If they go lookin' for him…" He drifted off before shaking his head and continued. "Just stay close ta someone, alright?"

"Alright," I said warily.

"'M serious, River." He said, putting his hand on my chin and pulling it up till my eyes met his. "Dun't be alone, dun't do anything stupid."

"Okay." I said with a nod.

"Promise me." He said.

"I promise." I said.

His ice blue eyes held something I hadn't seen in them before. But I couldn't quite put my finger on it. He nodded slightly and sighed.

"What was that?" He asked, jerking his thumb back towards the barn.

"What can I say? I loved the Borne films; always wanted to interrogate someone." I laughed. "We needed to know what he knew. So, now we do. Tag team interrogation style." I grinned.

He nodded.

"I'll see ya later." He said before walking away.

I stood there for a minute, unsure of what to do as I watched him walk back towards the barn. Maybe he did really care. Or maybe I was just being silly.

That evening, I sat by the fire near our tents with Daryl and Taylor. As we ate supper and chatted lightly, I looked up to see Dale approaching.

"Can I have a word with y'all?" He asked, shifting the rifle strapped to his shoulders.

"I moved over here to get away from you people." Daryl grunted.

"Of course, Dale," I said. "Have a seat."

"I wanted to talk about Randall." He said, sitting down.

"I figured as much." Taylor said, running his hand through his hair.

"We can't be the judge, jury and executioner. Killing him won't change the people he was with. But it will change us." Dale said.

"The world has changed, Dale. And so have we. He's a threat, simple as that." I said.

"You're a decent man, Daryl. You cared about what happened to Sophia. You can't tell me you don't care about this." Dale argued.

"Nope, don't care." Daryl said without looking up from his plate. "Group's broken."

"Lives or dies, you don't care?" He asked Daryl.

"Said I dun't care." Daryl said.

"River, you're okay with killing him? What if you had to be the one to pull the trigger?" Dale asked.

"Then I'd pull the trigger." I said.

"And what do you think you'd feel afterwards?" Dale inquired further.

"Recoil," I answered plainly.

Taylor shook his head.

"And what about you Taylor?" Dale asked.

"What she said." Taylor said. "I agree with her one hundred percent."

"And if you were the one who had to pull the trigger, you'd be able to sleep at night?" Dale asked Taylor.

"I'd sleep like a baby." He answered.

"Well," Dale said, getting to his feet. "This group is broken."

Movement next to me was what woke me from my slumber the next morning. My eyes fluttered open as Daryl came into focus in the still dark tent. He moved quietly around the tent getting ready.

"Hey." I said, sitting up.

He turned around to look at me. "Hey. I didn't mean at wake ya."

"It's okay." I shrugged. "I didn't mean to fall asleep here again. I'm sorry. I promise I'll give your tent back today."

He shook his head as he slipped his shirt on. "Nah, its fine. I'm gonna go huntin'. I'll be back later."

"I'll go with you." I said, shoving the sleeping bag off me.

"No." He said shaking his head.

"I didn't ask for your permission." I said daringly. "I'm not damaged goods. Plus, I'll be with you. I'll be fine."

He sighed. "Ya stay close, ya got me?"

"Yes, Mr. Dixon." I said sarcastically.

After I threw on my shorts and oversized sweater, laced up my books and unwrapped a pop tart to share with Daryl for breakfast, we made our way to the woods. I'd left Taylor a note on his tent that I had left with Daryl so he wouldn't freak out when he found I wasn't there. The sun was just coming up, like a big bald head peeking over the clouds. My legs and top of my socks and boots were damp as we trudged through the tall dew damp grass towards the woods. It was eerily quiet. But I was elated to be back in the woods again.

We fell into our silent communication of nods like we did every time we'd been hunting together. We didn't need to speak to understand each other out here. Out here in the woods, we understood one another completely. Somehow, someway, we knew the others thoughts, movements, intentions…

As noon approached us, we stopped to rest and eat a little lunch Daryl had brought for us. As I cleaned the blood off my arrows, something caught my eye.

"Daryl…" I said, not glancing at him. "It's a house."

I pointed to my right. Sure enough, in the distance, barely visible through the dense woods was the faint makings of a house.

"Let's check it out." He said, standing up.

I followed the crossbow wielding man through the woods and towards the small house. As we approached, I could see no one had been here long before the outbreak. The place was run down; the white paint was peeling off the side of the house, a few windows were broken and one of the wooden stairs leading to the front door was caved in.

"Careful." Daryl said as we started up the front steps.

He turned the door knob, revealing it was unlocked. He glanced at me and nodded before shoving the door wide open and entering the house first.

The house had been closed off for some time. The smell and thick dust told me that much. We set off in different directions, searching each room, one by one.

I stopped as I entered a bedroom and my eyes fell on something that caused me to smile brightly.

"'S all clear." Daryl said. "Where ya at?"

"Here," I called. "Someone's been here recently."

"Yeah. The dust in the kitchen is disturbed." He said.

"So is the dust here." I said.

I could hear him enter the room and make his way behind me. But I paid no mind. I kept going through the box of treasure in front of me.

"Records?" He said.

"Yeah," I said, looking back at him with a huge smile. "I had one of these." I motioned to the old vinyl player beside me. "Mine wasn't a crank one like this. But still. Ah, ha!"

I pulled out a record and placed it on the turn table. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Daryl slump down on the bed.

"Yes!" I shouted as I threw my hands in the air as the record started playing.

I pulled out a record and placed it on the turn table. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Daryl slump down on the bed.

"Yes!" I shouted as I threw my hands in the air as the record started playing.

I started dancing around the room, singing along loudly.

_Poor old Johnny Ray,  
>Sounded sad upon the radio,<br>Broke a million hearts in mono,  
>But he moved a million hearts in mono<em>

It was the first time in a long time that I felt alive. Music had been my solace my whole life and I missed it greatly. I spun around the room, not caring that I had an audience. For a second, a split second, the world didn't seem like such a dark, terrible place.

_Come on Eileen  
>Oh, I swear what he means<br>At this moment you mean everything  
>You in that dress<em>

_My thoughts I confess  
>Verge on dirty<br>Oh, come on Eileen  
><em>  
>I heard Daryl chuckle from the bed. I stopped and looked over at him and smiled when I saw he was grinning.<p>

"C'mon." I said, beckoning him to join me.  
>He shook his head and grinned. "Nah, I'll just enjoy tha show."<p>

"Suit yourself." I shrugged.

But just as I started singing along and twirling around the room again, a gunshot stopped my joy short. I looked at Daryl for a split second as he jumped up from the bed. I immediately turned and ran out of the house.

"River, wait!" Daryl yelled from behind me.

I could hear shouting and growls of the dead as I ran out into the front yard.

"This way," I said, taking off as I heard Daryl's footsteps near me.

We dashed through the woods as fast as our feet could carry us. I grabbed an arrow from my quiver as I jumped over a log. The scene came into view; there were two men fighting off six walkers. They were dirty and only held knives in their hands.

I shot a walker down and hastily grabbed another arrow as a bolt whizzed by me, landing square in a walker's temple. I shot my second arrow, hitting the walker closest to one of the men just above the ear. The two men finished off the remaining walkers.

As they caught their breath, one of them turned towards us.

"Thank you." He said.

I felt my heart skip ten beats and I swear in that moment, I didn't breath at all. I couldn't. Realization washed over the man as he hit the other in the arm, who was bent over still catching his breath, causing him to look up.

"Oh, holy shit." I breathed. My eyes already blurring with tears.

_This wasn't real. It couldn't be…  
><em>  
>I dropped my bow and ran towards the two men, flinging my arms around them and sobbing uncontrollably. I heard Daryl yell my name but it sounded like a hundred miles away. Nothing else mattered.<p>

_My brothers_. They were alive.


	8. Chapter Eight: Closer

I sobbed and sobbed to the point I could barely breathe. I was terrified to let go of them. As if they'd blow away in the wind if I did. I couldn't believe I found them and here, of all places.

"I thought you were dead." I choked out.

"We thought you were too." Julian said. "We tried looking for you, and Taylor, and Cora. But we couldn't make it to your apartment, the city was overrun. We had to get out."

"We went by mom and dad's house but no one was there." I told them.

I pulled away and wiped my tear stained face. _This had to be a dream_. I thought to myself.

"We must've just missed you." Greyson said. "When we got to mom and dad's it had already been raided. But the weapons were out of the safe. We figured it was you or Taylor."

"Cora? Taylor?" Julian asked hesitantly.

I shook my head. "Cora didn't make it. Taylor is back at camp.

Tears welled up in my brothers eyes.

Oh!" I turned around, looking at Daryl standing by a tree. He looked beyond confused and uncomfortable.

"Greyson, Julian, this is Daryl. Daryl, these are my older twin brothers." I said.

"Nice to meet ya, man," Julian said, nodding.

"Thanks for taking care of our sister." Greyson said.

Daryl nodded in reply. "Same to ya, 'nd you're welcome. Let's get y'all back to the farm." Daryl said.

We made our way back through the woods; Julian on one side of me, Greyson on the other. I pointed to the run down house as we passed.

"They had an awesome record collection in there." I said to my brothers.

"We saw. We stayed there last night." Greyson said.

"No wonder the bed and dust was disturbed. We were in the house when we heard a gunshot. And that Jimi Hendrix was on the record player." I laughed.

"You know me all too well. We used our last bullet." Julian laughed. "Lemme guess, you played Dexy's Midnight Runners, The Beatles and David Bowie."

"Only had time for Dexy's," I replied. "But you're in luck… I got some ammo."

"Uh, I think I left my knife in there." Daryl said suddenly. "I'll be right back."

"Okay." I said.

I narrowed my eyes as I watched him walk away towards the house. His knife was hanging from his belt. _Why did he just lie?_

As he disappeared into the rundown house, Julian cleared his throat.

"So, what's your boyfriend like?" He asked. "He seems really quiet. And definitely not your type."

I almost choked. "He's not my boyfriend. But I do think he's hot in that rugged look."

"If you say so," Greyson shrugged. "And I could do without hearin' about you think he's hot."

"Taylor is going to shit a brick." I beamed, trying to change the subject.

"I can't wait to see him." Julian said.

When Daryl came back out of the house, we started back towards the farm once more. I knew I had to look ridiculous with the huge smile I had on my face, but I didn't care. My brothers were alive and safe. And right in front of me. Today was, by far, the best day of my life.

We chatted lightly as we walked. Daryl and I still tried to hunt on the way back since our trip was being cut short. We managed to add three squirrels to our collection. Daryl stayed silent unless one of the guys spoke to him directly. I knew he felt uncomfortable around the new people, but that was the least of my concerns at this point.

"We're here." I said brightly as the woods began to thin.

I could make out the large white farm house in the distance. I was already trying to scan the grounds for Taylor.

As we broke through the tree line, I spotted him. He was by the barn, just fifty yards away, talking to Glenn.

"Is that Rhee?" Julian asked.

"Yeah," I said. "We found him with this group about a month ago."

I saw Glenn look up. I could practically see his eyes widen and his jaw drop slightly. I watched with a smile as he reached over, tapping Taylor and pointing towards us. When Taylor looked our way, the color almost drained out of his face. He broke out in a run towards us, Glenn hot on his tail.

"Oh my God!" He yelled as he wrapped his arms around Greyson.

Julian wrapped his arms around both of them as Taylor started to cry.

"Get in here, Rhee!" Greyson yelled, holding out an arm to invite Glenn into the group hug.

He smiled and walked over, tears in his eyes, to join them.

I was overwhelmed with emotion; tears streaming down my face again, as I watched my brothers and friend reunite. I reached out my hand and found Daryl's. I laced my fingers around his and squeezed.

Looking over at him, I smiled. Today was amazing.

After our reunion, we made our way over towards the house. Rick stood outside on the porch with Herschel. He looked at us curiously as we approached, making his way down the steps to meet us.

"What's goin' on guys?" He asked, eyeing my oldest brothers.

"River's brothers. Found them surrounded by six walkers far out in the woods." Daryl said.

Rick nodded in understanding. "I should've guessed with the red hair. I'm Rick Grimes."

He extended his hand out in greeting. Julian took his hand and smiled.

"I'm Julian." He said.

"Greyson."

"Nice to meet you guys." Rick said. "This is Herschel Greene, Herschel this is River and Taylor's brothers, Greyson and Julian. Herschel is the owner of this farm and has been kind enough to let us stay here for a while."

"I've heard a lot about you boys." Herschel said with a smile. "Come on in. Let's get you cleaned up and fed."

"We'd greatly appreciate it." Julian said.

Later that afternoon, the whole group stood around the Greene's living room. The topic of discussion was Randall's fate. Everyone eyed each other warily. No one wanted to be here or be forced to decide the young boy's fate. But it was inevitable.

"First of all, for those who haven't got to meet them, this is Greyson and Julian." Rick said. "They are River and Taylor's older brothers."

There was a chorus of greetings towards the two. I noticed Greyson's eyes linger on Andrea.

"Getting to business," Rick said. "I'm sorry you two had to come around when this was going on. But we'd like your input as well, if you'd like to offer it." He said directly to Greyson and Julian.

"To give you a little more information, we came across some men in the town nearby. The boy we have, Randall, got his leg impaled on a gate. We brought him back here and patched him up. When we tried to drop him off, he revealed he had gone to school with Herschel's daughter, Maggie, and knew where the farm was. Since then, he's also told us the group he was with contains about thirty men, who are heavily armed, and have been known to rape women." Rick explained. "I believe it's unsafe to let him go. Since he knows where the farm is, if he found his group, he could return for revenge."

"How do we do this? Do we put it to a vote?" Glenn asked.

"Does it have to be unanimous?" Andrea asked.

"Majority rules," Lori said.

"Wait; let's just see where everyone stands." Rick said. "Go over our options."

"Way I see it, only one way to move forward." Shane said.

"What? Kill him?" Dale said. "Why even take a vote? It's clear who'd win that."

"If someone thinks we should spare him, I wanna know." Rick said.

"Well, I can tell you it's a small group; maybe just me and Glenn." Dale said.

Glenn looked up at the older man warily.

Dale's eyes widened.

"Look, I think you're right about a lot of things, but…" Glenn started.

"They've got you scared!" Dale said, pointing to the group.

"He's not one of us!" Glenn said back hastily. "And we've lost too many people already."

"How about you?" Dale said, pointing to Maggie. "Do you agree with this?"

"Couldn't we just continue keeping him prisoner?" She asked.

"Just another mouth to feed," Daryl said.

"We could ration better." Lori suggested.

"He could be an asset! Give him a chance to prove himself!" Dale exclaimed.

"Put him to work." Glenn said.

"We're not letting him walk around." Rick said.

"Put an escort on him?" Maggie suggested.

"And who wants to volunteer for that duty?" Shane said snidely.

"I would!" Dale said.

"I don't think anyone should be walking around with this guy." Rick said, holding up his hand.

"He's right." I said. "I wouldn't feel safe if he wasn't tied up."

"We can't exactly put chains around his ankles and sentence him to hard labor." Andrea said.

"Look, say we let him join us, right? Maybe he's helpful, maybe he's nice. And we let our guard down, maybe he brings back his thirty men." Shane said.

"So the answer is to kill him for a crime he may never even attempt?!" Dale said.

I looked around the room. No one moved.

"You can't all agree with this." Dale said in horror. "This is a boy's life we are talking about! Greyson, Julian… you just arrived. As outsiders, what do you think?"

"With everything I've heard, I agree. I wouldn't feel comfortable letting him go if he was with a group of men like that and knowing where the base is. I have a sister, man; the whole raping women thing kind of hits home with me. I'm sorry, I hate to agree with it, but there's no other choice in my mind. The boy can't be let go." Greyson said.

"I second that." Julian said.

"River?" Dale said, looking over at me as if pleading for my help.

"I'm sorry, Dale. Letting him go would put everyone's lives at risk." I said, shaking my head. "As I see it, it's him or us. I am pretty partial to us."

Dale hung his head low before sighing. "If we do this, we're saying there's no hope. Rule of law is dead, there is no civilization."

"Oh my God." Shane muttered.

"Could you drive him further out?" Herschel asked, looking to Rick. "Leave him like you planned?"

Lori shook her head. "You barely came back this time. There are walkers, you could break down, and you could get lost…"

"Or get ambushed." Daryl said.

"We shouldn't put our own people at risk." Glenn said.

"If you go through with it, how would you do it?" Patricia asked. "Will he suffer?"

"We could hang him, right? Just snap his neck." Shane said.

"I thought about that. Shooting might be more humane." Rick said.

"What about the body?" T-Dog asked.

"Hold on! You're talking about this as if it's already decided!" Dale shouted.

"We've been talking all day, goin' 'round in circles. Ya wanna go around in circles again?" Daryl said.

"This is a young man's life we're talking about! It deserves more than a five minute discussion!" Dale said. "Is this what it comes to? We kill a man because we can't decide what else to do with him. You saved him! Now look at him! He's been tortured, he's gonna be executed. How are we any better than those people we're so afraid of?"

"We all know what needs to be done." Shane said.

"No, Dale is right." Rick said. "We can't leave any stone unturned here. We have a responsibility…"

"So what's the other solution? We haven't come up with a single viable solution." Andrea said.

"So let's work on it!" Dale shouted.

"Stop it!" Carol said, finally speaking up. "I'm sick of everyone fighting. I didn't ask for this. You can't ask us to decide something like this. Please decide; either of you, both of you. But leave me out." After this she left the house.

"Not speaking out or killing him yourself, there's no difference." Dale said, pointing to Carol.

"Shut up; don't talk to her like that!" I said to Dale.

"Alright, that's enough." Rick said. "Anyone who wants the floor before we make a final decision has the chance."

I glanced around the room. Many people had their heads hung low. Carol was right; none of us asked for this. But yet here we were, talking about killing a boy.

"You once said we don't kill the living." Dale said, motioning to Rick.

"Well, that was before the living tried to kill us." Rick said back.

"I can understand that. We came across a group of men in the suburbs. They had plenty of supplies, only five men. They tried to ambush us and take what little we had." Julian said. "We barely got away. We ended up having to kill them."

"But don't you see, if we do this, the people we were, the world that we knew is dead! And this new world is ugly, it's harsh, it's survival of the fittest." Dale said. "And that's a world I don't want to live in. And I don't believe any of you do. I can't. Please, let's just do what's right. Isn't there anyone else that's gonna stand with me?"

"But it's reality." I said. "This is how the world is now. You have to change to survive in this new world. If you don't do something about a threat… then it's you that will die. You're the voice of reason for a lot of things. But on this you're wrong. Say we do let him go, he finds his group and they come back and kill us all. That blood, our deaths, would be on your hands. I love you, Dale. But you weren't made for how the world is now."

"He's right." Andrea said, cutting a '_If looks could kill_' my way. "We should try to find another way."

"Anybody else?" Rick asked, looking around.

There was silence among us.

"Are you gonna watch too?" Dale asked. "No, you'll hide your heads in your tents and try to forget we're slaughtering a human being. Well, I won't be a party to it."

He crossed the living room, stopping by Daryl who stood beside me in the doorway. He placed his hand on Daryl's shoulder.

"This group is broken." He said sadly before storming out of the house.

A while later, after we'd finished our discussion about Randall; I sat by my tent with my brothers, Glenn, Maggie, Daryl and Carl. Rick had stopped Randall's execution since Carl had followed him to the barn. I was helping Carl with his homework, trying to get the boy focused on something else. Ever since he'd met my older brothers, he'd been tantalized by Julian's exaggerated stories he told the boy of some of his travels.

"We went to New Zealand one year to visit all the locations that the Lord of the Rings was filmed." Julian said.

"Wow." Carl said.

"That one is actually true." I said laughing.

"You're lucky to have so many siblings." Carl said to me.

"Yes, I am." I smiled. "You can be my adopted little brother. I always wanted a younger sibling."

"Really?" He asked, eyes widening.

"Of course," I said, pulling the boy into a hug.

All of a sudden an agonizing scream erupted through the air. We all went on high alert, looking around wildly for the source. As quick as a wink, we all shot up to our feet, weapons out and hurried towards the field and towards the scream.

"Stay behind us!" I called to Carl as we darted across the field.

"River, stay behind me!" Daryl said.

As we neared, my heart sank. Dale laid on the ground, stomach ripped open and his insides out. Daryl ran full speed towards them, tackling the walker off of Dale to the ground, and stabbing it in the head.

I gasped and grabbed Carl, pulling him close to me. "Don't look." I told the boy.

He stood up after he'd killed the walker.

"Over here!" Daryl yelled, waving his arms for the rest of the group to see.

He dropped to his knees beside Dale. "Hang on, brother."

As Daryl stood and came by my side, wrapping an arm around my shoulder to comfort me as tears streamed down my cheeks and dripped off my chin, the rest of the group arrived.

Rick kneeled beside the dying man. "Listen to me, we'll get help."

"Oh my God!" Andrea screamed, dropping to her knees beside the older man. "Do something! He's suffering! River!"

"I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do for him. It's too severe." I said, tears streaming down my face.

Rick grabbed my arm, pushing Carl back towards Lori. "Help him!"

I dropped to my knees beside the man and got a close look at the damage. I turned around and looked up at Rick and shook my head.

"Herschel!" He yelled.

Herschel appeared next to me and shook his head as well. "He wouldn't make the trip." He told Rick.

"You can do the surgery here!" Rick shouted.

Herschel reached out and placed a hand on Rick's shoulder and shook his head once more.

Andrea sobbed beside the man as he groaned in pain. "He's suffering, do something!"

Rick stepped forward and pointed his gun at Dale's forehead. But he hesitated.

"Oh God." Andrea sobbed as she turned her head.

Daryl let go of me and walked over to Rick, placing his hand on his gun. He nodded to the deputy and took the gun from him.

He glanced over at me. "Don't look."

He pointed the gun at Dale. "I'm sorry, brother."

The gunshot made me jump. I felt my heart drop like an anchor was tied to it and had been thrown out to sea, dragging it down into the depths with it. We'd all just disagreed with the man. I said things that weren't exactly nice. Now he was gone.

The next day, we all stood around the makeshift grave we'd dug for Dale. Rick stood in front of us, head bowed. The silence around us was deafening.

Finally, Rick cleared his throat and spoke.

"Dale could sure get under your skin. He got under mine. Because he wasn't afraid to say exactly what he thought, how he felt. That kind of honesty is rare… and brave. Whenever I'd make a decision, I'd look at Dale. He'd be lookin' back at me with that look he had; we've all seen it one time or another. I couldn't always read him, but he could read us; saw people for who they were, knew things about us, the truth about who we really are. In the end, he was talking about losing our humanity. He said this group is broken. The best way to honor him is to unbreak it, set aside our differences and pull together. Stop feeling sorry for ourselves and take control of our lives, our safety, and our future. We're not broken; we're gonna prove him wrong. From now on, we're gonna do it his way. That is how we honor Dale." He said.

I drifted off into my own thoughts, blocking out what the deputy was saying. Daryl stood beside me on my left, Greyson to my right. Taylor stood beside Beth, Herschel on her other side, along with Glenn and Maggie.

I felt a hand brush against mine. I looked down to see Daryl lacing his fingers around mine.  
>"Everythin' 'll be alright." He whispered.<p>

After the funeral for Dale, I walked across the yard alone towards my tent.

"River!" Carl shouted.

I turned around to see the boy sprinting towards me.

"Can I talk to you?" He asked as he came to my side.

"Of course, you know you can always talk to me." I said, wrapping my arm around him.

"Do you promise not to tell anyone?" He said.

I furrowed my eyebrows curiously. "If that's what you wish."

"The walker - the one that killed Dale - I saw it in the woods earlier yesterday. It was stuck in the mud. I couldn't kill it. It got free and I ran." He said, head hanging low. "It's my fault Dale is dead."

My eyes widened in shock as I absorbed the young boy's words.

"It's not your fault, Carl. Don't ever think that for even a second. Everything happens for a reason. What were you doing in the woods alone, Carl?" I asked.

Dale's words for our discussion about Randall played though my mind. _But don't you see, if we do this, the people we were, the world that we knew is dead! And this new world is ugly, it's harsh, it's survival of the fittest. And that's a world I don't want to live in. _

"I just wanted to explore. I'm not a baby…" He said.

"No, you're not a baby, Carl. But you are a kid still." I said, bending down in front of the boy. I took his hand and looked him in the eyes. "I get you feel you have to prove something. Prove you're not a baby. I was the youngest of five kids, even though Taylor is my twin, he constantly reminded me that he was four minutes older. I always felt I had something to prove daily to make sure no one thought of me as the baby. When Taylor did something, I had to do it too, and try to do it better. When my sister started wearing makeup, I had to too. I get what you're going through. But this world is different, and this isn't karate lessons or makeup, this is life or death. Do you realize that could have been you instead of Dale? And you would've been out in the woods and no one would have known where to look for you. I'm not trying to sound like your mom, Carl. I'm telling you this because I love ya and you're like my little brother. Just be more careful from now on, okay?"

"Okay." Carl said.

"Pinky promise?" I asked, holding out my pinky to the boy.

"Pinky promise," He laughed, wrapping his pinky around mine. "Are you gonna tell my mom and dad?"

"Not this time. I promised you I wouldn't. But now that you've promised me you'll be more careful, I don't expect there to be anything I'd have to consider telling them in the future, right?" I said.

"Right." He said.

"C'mon." I said, standing up and wrapping my arm back around the young boy. "I know where Taylor's stash of stale M&M's are. Let's go raid 'em."

"Eighteen people in one house will be cramped." Rick said to Herschel as we all stood around the old blue truck later that day.

"Don't you worry about that," Herschel said. "Should've moved you in a while ago."

"Listen, can I talk to ya?" Daryl said, touching my shoulder.

"Yeah," I said, nodding.

He led me a ways away from the group.

"I'm gonna go with Rick ta drop Randall off." Daryl said.

"Okay." I nodded, unsure why he was telling me this.

"I wanted ta let ya know… cause… well. And I wanted ta ask ya ta please be careful. With ya bein' here with Shane… jus' makes me nervous." He said rubbing the back of his neck.

I smirked and tilted my head curiously.

"I'll be careful. I'll stick with my brothers, I'm sure they'll keep me safe if I ask nicely." I said jokingly.

"'M serious, Riv. Be serious for a minute. I already talked to yer bruthers." He said.

"You did?" I said, raising my eyebrows.

"Yeah," He replied, looking down at his shoes.

"Wow, Daryl." I sighed.

I stepped forward, closing the gap between us and got on my tippy toes. I planted a kiss on his cheek.

"You're sweet." I said, smiling at him.

"Uh, I…" He stammered. "I'll…"

Before he even finished an actual sentence, he walked away from me. For what felt like the millionth time, I stood there dumbfounded as I processed what he'd said. Maybe he did really care. A silly smile crept across my face.

For the next little bit, I helped the group move into the house. Glenn, Taylor, Greyson, Julian, Daryl and I were to take the parlor.

"Make sure ya set lover boy's bed up next to yours." Julian said jokingly. "If I hear any funny noises, I won't hesitate to beat someone up. Then probably puke everywhere."

"He is not my boyfriend!" I hissed.

"Hey..." Greyson said suddenly.

I glanced over to see him staring out the window.

"Yeah?" I said.

"I think I know her from somewhere." He said, pointing out of the window.

I rose to my feet from setting up our sleeping bags and crossed the room. As I neared, I saw who he was pointing to. Andrea.

"You just might." I said. "That's Andrea. She was a civil rights lawyer."

"Andrea Davis?" He asked.

"I think so." I shrugged. "Never bothered asking her last name."

"Who needs a last name when the only interaction you're gonna have is punching her lights out." Taylor chuckled.

"You punched her?" Julian asked, slightly amused.

"Numerous times. Broke her nose too," Taylor said laughing

"She almost killed Daryl!" I said. I immediately regretted saying that.

"Ha ha!" Julian shouted. "I knew it! You owe me a bag of Reese's Pieces!" Julian said pointing to Greyson.

"Y'all were betting?!" I yelped.

"Maybe. Maybe not." Greyson shrugged.

"Asses. All of you are asses." I said pointing to each of them.

I turned to leave, only to find Beth standing in the doorway. I smiled at her as I approached.

"Tay, your girlfriend wants you!" I said loudly.

As I passed her, I whispered. "Sorry kid, they were giving me hell over Daryl. I had to seize the opportunity to dish it back."

She smiled and nodded in understanding.

I walked out onto the porch. I saw Daryl and T-Dog in the distance, by the old battered blue pickup truck. I watched Daryl as he moved, organizing their supplies for the trip.

I skipped down the stairs and towards the truck. T-Dog walked away as I drew near.

"Hey." I said sheepishly.

How this man made me feel like a million butterflies were in my stomach sometimes was beyond me.

"Hey." He said without looking up.

"I just wanted to let ya know I moved your stuff into the house. Me, you, my brothers and Glenn are taking the parlor…. If that's okay with you." I said.

"Bunkin' with ya bruthers. That's intimidatin'." He said as he picked up the gas can and put it into the bed of the truck.

"I can move your stuff somewhere else if you don't want to be in there." I suggested, feeling my heart drop a little.

"Nah, I neva said that." He said.

As I opened my mouth to reply, T-Dog rushed over.

"He's gone!" He shouted.

Rick and Daryl took off before I could even comprehend what was going on. I dashed off after them towards the shed. I reached it just as Daryl came out, pushing the door angrily.

"How is he missing?" I asked.

"Cuffs are still hooked. Must've slipped 'em." Rick said as he came out of the shed.

Greyson and Julian appeared by my side.

"Is that possible?" Carol asked.

"It is if you've got nothing to lose." Andrea said.

"The door was secured from the outside." Herschel said examining the door and lock.

"Rick!" We heard a man shouting. "Rick!"

We all turned to see a bloodied Shane making his way over from the tree line. His face splattered with blood and the look of vengeance etched across his face.

"He's armed! He's got my gun!" He shouted.

"Are you okay?" Lori asked.

I rolled my eyes. Of course she was worried about her boyfriend.

"I'm fine but the little bastard snuck up on me and clocked me in the face." Shane explained.

I had a gut feeling. Somehow I didn't buy the web of lies he was weaving.

"Alright, Herschel, T-Dog, get everyone back in the house." Rick said. "Glenn, Daryl, come with us."

"Go in." Daryl said, placing a hand on my back. "Don't come out till I'm back."

He looked over at my brothers and nodded to them before taking off.

Darkness had fallen as I stood in the window of the Greene's house, staring out into the night absentmindedly. For a world that had gone all to hell, I couldn't help but admire the view; it was beautiful. When suddenly, a small figure walking towards the woods caught my eye; I stared in horror as I recognized the sheriff's hat on top of its head.

I checked the back of my shorts for my gun and dashed out of the house without a word to anyone.

I sprinted across the yard as fast as I could. But the figure, Carl, disappeared in the dense trees. As I was engulfed by the woods as well, I looked around wildly for the boy. I grabbed the flashlight from my pocket and flashed it on the ground. His small tracks were visible and I took off.

"Carl!" I hissed quietly.

I didn't want to risk yelling and scare him or alert something in the dark. So I trudged on after him, clicking on my flashlight to make sure I could see his tracks still. The woods were eerie in the night. A light mist floated through the trees and the moonlight pierced through the thick leaves above in patches.

After about ten or so minutes, I spotted him walking into a clearing. A figure was in the distance, knelt down in front of what appeared to be a person lying on the ground.

"Dad?" I heard Carl choke as I drew near.

"Carl…" I said.

He glanced back at me before turning back to his dad. Rick got to his feet, eyes wide in horror. I gasped slightly when I realized it was Shane lying on the ground, dead.

"Carl, I…" Rick began as he started to move towards his son.

Carl quickly raised his gun. I put my hand over my mouth as I watched the situation at hand.  
>I had my eyes locked on Rick, so I never saw what Carl was seeing just beyond his father.<p>

Suddenly, his gun went off. I shrieked, thinking the worse. But as Rick stood frozen, I saw Shane's reanimated corpse hit the ground just behind Rick.

I rushed over to Carl and took the gun out of his hand. As I looked down at it, I realized it was Daryl's missing gun. I stared at the boy in shock, then up to Rick. He approached us, dropping to his knees.

He embraced his son, sobbing. He reached his hand up and tugged on my sweater. I dropped to my knees beside them as Rick wrapped his free arm around me.

He buried his head in the crook of my neck.

"He led me out here to kill me; to take my family. I had to." He whispered, barely audible. "He won't ever touch you again."


	9. Chapter Nine: Goodbye to You

*Everyone's POV*

The remainder of the group sat around the living room of the Greene's home. Everyone was silent; heads hung low, tension laid thick in the air.

"I'm going after them." Andrea said suddenly, breaking the silence and standing up.

"Don't." Lori said from her seat across the room. "If Randall comes back, we'll need you."

Just then the front door creaked open and Glenn and Daryl walked in.

"Rick and Shane ain't back?" Daryl asked as he scanned the room.

"No." Julian said.

"We heard a shot." Daryl said.

"Maybe they found Randall." Lori suggested.

"We found him." Daryl said.

"Is he back in the shed?" Patricia asked.

"He's a walker." Daryl said.

"Did you find the walker that bit him?" Herschel asked.

"The weird thing is, he wasn't bit." Glenn explained.

"His neck was broke." Daryl said.

"So, he fought back?" Patricia said.

"The thing is, Shane and Randall's tracks were right on top of each other." Daryl said. "Shane ain't no tracker. He didn't come up behind him. They were together."

Lori stood up and crossed the room to Daryl. "Will you please-"

Daryl held up his hand to stop her. "Where's River?"

Everyone looked around at each other, waiting for someone to answer.

"I thought she was upstairs with Maggie." Greyson said.

"No." Maggie said, shaking her head. "Last time I saw her she was in the parlor."

"So, no one knows where she is?!" Daryl yelled, looking around at everyone accusingly.

"God dammit!" He yelled as he stormed towards the front door and pushed it open with more force than necessary.

*River's POV*

I walked along the field back towards the house with Rick and Carl. I hung behind them, letting them have their space. I knew the severity of what had just happened was looming over the pair. I couldn't imagine what Rick must be feeling right now, and all the questions running through Carl's young mind. I wrapped my arms tightly around my chest as the cold pierced me to the bone. I hadn't had a chance to change out of my shorts; in the South, the weather was unpredictable when fall neared. The day could be warm and sunny, but as the sun set, it could turn into a frigid cold, as if it were skipping fall completely and jumping straight into winter.

"What happened? Were you attacked? I mean, I heard a gunshot." Carl asked his father. "I didn't see any walkers nearby. How did Shane die?"

Rick stopped in his tracks, looking over at his son, debating how to tell him what had just happened between him and his former friend. I could see the dilemma behind his eyes. I did not envy him right now.

I heard an odd noise from behind me. As I turned around, my heart stopped.

"Oh, fuck. Rick!" I said.

Rick turned and saw what I was seeing. A herd of walkers were crossing the field. There had to be a hundred of them, easily. My heart began to race with panic. The gunshots must've drawn them here.

Rick grabbed the sleeve of my sweater and with his other, Carl's shoulder. "Go! Go! Go!" He said quietly.

We ran as fast and as silently as we could. We paused by a tree, crouching down, assessing our situation. They were coming from every which way now. I tried to calm myself by taking deep long breaths. I pulled out my gun, checking the magazine, and getting it ready. I quickly did the same with Daryl's gun, but turned the safety back on and placed it back in my shorts, opting to use my own first. I felt more comfortable with it, and with the panic I was in, handling an unfamiliar gun right now wasn't ideal.

"We got to get to the house. Warn the others." Carl said.

"We'll never make it through that. The barn is closer." Rick said. "Stay close."

He looked at both of us before he stood back up straight and we took off through the sea of walkers, dodging the ones that drew near.

We darted into the barn, just as a dozen walkers neared. Carl and I shut the doors and leaned against them as Rick grabbed a metal bar and shoved it through the handles to try to secure it. But it was a temporary solution. With as many walkers as there were, the door would break down in no time.

I watched Rick as he scanned the barn, looking for any sort of plan. I saw his eyes fall on the large containers of gasoline and I immediately knew what he was thinking.

I followed him over and grabbed one, handing it back to Carl and picked up one for myself. We quickly swept across the barn floor, dumping gasoline onto the hay that littered it.

"Climb!" Rick said, pointing to the ladder.

"What about you?" Carl asked.

Rick handed the boy a lighter. "I'll be right up. Drop it when I say. We'll stop some of them from reaching the house and give us a chance."

"No." I said, shaking my head.

"We don't-"

"You have a kid and one on the way. Get up there with him. I'll do it." I said.

"There's no way." Rick said, shaking his head.

"Now!" I yelled. "Just go!"

He put his hand on my shoulder. "If something happens to you, you know Daryl will kill me."

I smirked. "Nothin' is goin' to happen. Now, climb!"

I ran towards the doors as they made their way up the ladder. I banged on the door, yelling at the top of my lungs to draw as many near as possible. I pulled the metal bar out of the handles and yanked the doors open. There were at least thirty of them that started in towards me, pushing against each other, trying desperately to get at me. I started backing away immediately as fast as I could.

"C'mon!" I yelled, coaxing as many of them to come into the barn as far as possible. "Over here!"

I rushed over and climbed up a few steps of the ladder. "C'mon!"

"Now, Carl!" Rick shouted as I started back up the ladder with haste. I barely got out of their reach, feeling a hand grab my boot, but I jerked away fast enough.

I got to the top as the lighter hit the ground and the flames consumed the barn floor and the mass of walkers. I crinkled my nose up as the smell of burning decayed flesh began to fill my senses. Though the panic of being surrounded by walkers was subsided, now the panic was replaced by the fact we were in the loft of a barn that was on fire.

I heard in the distance the familiar rumbling of Daryl's motorcycle. I ran to the opening that led to the ledge to look out. I saw the cars heading towards us. Maybe they could see the fire.

"They're comin'." I said to Rick.

A chorus of gunshots filled the air as I saw Glenn, Andrea, Taylor and Julian hanging out of different cars, firing shots at walkers. I watched as one by one, with each gunshot, walkers hitting the ground.

To my relief, I saw Daryl's motorcycle and the RV heading our way.

"They're pullin' the RV over here!" I shouted.

We dashed out on the landing as we saw it approaching. Daryl darted off back to help the others. As the RV pulled up, I saw Greyson in the driver seat.

"C'mon, baby girl!" He yelled.

Rick jumped from the landing onto the roof beside it and extended his hand. I helped Carl over to him then leapt over myself. We rushed across the wooden roof and onto the top of the RV that was level with it. Just as Rick was about to help me down the ladder, I heard the door of the RV shove open with force and Greyson scream.

"NO! NO!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

I tried to push past Rick and make it to the hatch to get into the RV to help my brother but Rick grabbed me around the waist.

"There's nothing you can do." He said.

I sobbed and screamed my brother's name. "I have to help him!"

"There's nothing you can do." He repeated again, pity in his voice. "I'm sorry."

My grief was instantly replaced with anger. I shoved Rick off of me, climbed down a few steps of the ladder and jumped the rest of the way down. As I landed I turned and started firing off rounds into the walker's heads. With each shot came a choked sob. My vision was blurring from my tears. My gun finally only clicked when I tried to shoot again; sobbing still, I pulled out Daryl's gun and stuffed my empty one in its place.

As Rick's feet hit the ground, he grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the RV. We sprinted through the walker's once more, weaving through them, shooting them down when needed, and trying desperately to make it towards the house. In my grief and anger, I kept shooting, as if it would calm me somehow or another. I couldn't stop crying, but I couldn't slow down. As we had passed the RV, I could still hear my brother's screams. If I lived to see the morning, I knew that would haunt me for the rest of my life; just like what happened with my sister, Cora, and my boyfriend, Nick.

Suddenly, a few walkers came out of nowhere, cutting me off. Rick and Carl didn't notice and kept running ahead of me. I aimed my gun, but when I pulled the trigger, nothing happened. I looked at the gun in disbelief. I was out of ammo. And I didn't have my bow and arrows with me. I pulled out my knife and stabbed the closest walker in the head.

Jerking it back out of its skull, I knew I was about to die. There were too many and I was surrounded. There was no way a knife was going to get me out of this alive.

Ever since the start of the apocalypse, I'd mentally prepared myself for death. I knew how my life would end… at the hands, or jaw, of a walker, the tip of a blade or staring down the barrel of a gun. I was okay with it. I had accepted it. It was inevitable.

But as I stabbed each walker in the head, blood splattering all over my face and front of my shirt from my haste, mixing with the fresh tears that ran down my cheeks, I suddenly wasn't okay with it. But I wasn't fighting for my life. I was fighting for someone.

Because in that moment, the moment I realized this was the end, the only thing that went through my mind was one man. _Daryl_.

As if some higher power heard my thoughts, I heard the rumble of his motorcycle. I looked around wildly, heart racing a mile a minute, as I jerked my knife from the skull of a walker once more. I spotted him, maybe twenty yards away.

As the walkers inched closer, I took a moment to throw my hands in the air. "DARYL!" I shouted as loud as I possibly could. "OVER HERE!"

I saw him turn his head and lock eyes on my location. He jerked the motorcycle and gunned it in my direction.

I had to look away and start stabbing walkers once again. As he neared, I heard gunshots and saw walkers around me dropping.

"C'mon!" He yelled as he pulled up near me. "Let's go!"

He continued to shoot down approaching walkers as I quickly put my knife back in its stealth and hopped on. As soon as I wrapped my arms around his middle, he took off.

"Get the gun in my saddle bag!" He yelled. "I grabbed an extra for ya!"

Normally I would've smiled knowing he thought of me. But I had no time to. I reached behind me and opened the saddle bag and grabbed the gun. We shot down any walkers near us as we darted through them. In the distance, we saw the blue pickup truck leaving the farm.

"We have to go!" I said as I shot down another walker.

He nodded and took off across the yard as I saw the silver SUV shoot past a dozen or more of walkers and follow the blue pickup out.

As we drove off of the farm, I took one last look behind me as the sky was fading from dark to light. It was the last time I'd lay eyes on the Greene's farm. The last place I'd seen my brother alive…

A while later, as we were headed back towards the highway where the group had broke down before finding Herschel's farm, I spotted the silver SUV behind us.

"Look!" I said.

He glanced in the rear view mirror and nodded.

As we pulled up to the spot on the highway where Daryl said they'd left supplies for Sophia when they were searching for her, we spotted Rick, Herschel and Carl. I prayed my brothers and Glenn were in the SUV. I internally said thanks that everyone had thought to come here, since we'd fooled ourselves into thinking we were safe on the farm and had never even discussed a place to meet up. When we parked, I watched as a red head of hair appeared from the back of the SUV.

I jumped off the motorcycle and ran over. Taylor picked me up and whirled me around.

"Oh, thank goodness!" I sobbed.

"Where's Greyson?" Taylor asked.

I hung my head as tears cascaded down my cheeks. I shook my head.

Taylor began to sob as he pulled me into a hug.

Just as I was about to ask where Julian was, I heard the familiar rumble.

"Oh, thank God!" I yelled rushing over as my black Impala pulled up.

I ran up and yanked the driver door open before he even had a chance, Taylor right behind me.

"I'm so glad you're okay! And you saved Baby!" I said, wrapping him in a tight hug.

We all embraced in a group hug before walking over to Daryl who stood beside his bike.  
>Maggie held onto Glenn on one side, Beth on the other, wrapped in her father's arms near the motorcycle.<p>

"How'd you find everyone?" Rick asked Daryl.

"Saw this guy's headlights zigzagging all over the road a while back; figured he had to be Asian drivin' like that." Daryl said.

"Oh, good one," Glenn scoffed.

"Where's Greyson?" Julian asked.

I looked to Taylor before walking off. I couldn't say it again.

I walked up to Glenn and Maggie and embraced them in a tight hug. As I started to walk back over to my brothers and Daryl, I saw Taylor rush over to Beth, pulling her into a tight hug. I widened my eyes; this was the first time he'd shown any affection towards Beth in front of Herschel and I half expected him to knock Taylor out. But he didn't, he wore a small smile on his face as he watched both Glenn and Taylor embracing his daughters.

"Where's the rest of us?" Daryl asked as I walked back over to him and Julian.

Julian grabbed me and wrapped me in his arms tight, tears streaming down his face.

"I'm so sorry you had to be there. To hear it," He said silently in my ear. "I can't believe he's gone. What am I gonna do without him?"

"You live your life. We all do. He'd want us to go on, not give up. He'll always be with us." I said as I felt his tears soaking the side of my face. He pulled away and smiled warily at me before planting a kiss on my forehead.

"How is it you're the baby and yet you're the wisest." Julian said, smirking slightly.

I scoffed and shook my head.

"This is all that's shown up so far." Rick said answering Daryl.

"Shane?" Lori asked.

I glanced over at Rick, who stared back at me for a moment before shaking his head. Lori gasped lightly and placed her hand over her mouth.

"Andrea?" Glenn asked.

"She saved me then I lost her." Carol said.

"We saw her go down." T-Dog said.

"Greyson?" Beth asked.

I shook my head, a tear trailing down my cheek. I felt an arm wrap around me to try to comfort me. But the arm had come from my left side, not the right, where my brother stood. I glanced over at Daryl for a moment before turning to look at Beth.

"He died when he was rescuing me, Rick and Carl from the barn." I said my voice slightly shaky.

"Patricia?" Herschel asked.

"They got her too; took her right from me." Beth said as she began to cry.

Taylor pulled her close to him and stroked her hair.

"Where do we go now?" Lori asked.

"I say we head east." T-Dog said.

"Stay off the main roads." Daryl said, letting go of me. He walked over to his bike and got his crossbow. "Bigger the roads, more assholes like this one. I got 'im."

"I have an idea." I said as the kathunk of Daryl's crossbow shot through the air.

All eyes immediately turned to me.

"Our parent's house," I said.

"Yeah," Taylor said in agreement. "It's in a gated community. It's got a gate around it too. There's lots of space, running water…"

"Why didn't y'all stay there?" T-Dog asked.

"We were in the city when the outbreak happened. We made it there and scavenged some weapons and food, but we couldn't bring ourselves to stay. We'd watched our sister get eaten alive, we couldn't find our brothers… we couldn't handle it." I said. "Once we used up all the food, we left."

"Greyson and I had gotten there after they'd already pillaged the house. We knew it was them, they were the only other ones who knew the combination to dad's safe and it had been opened, not broken into. Cora couldn't even remember her own phone number half the time, let alone a combination." Julian said. "We left a note for them in case they came back to let them know we were alive. We didn't stay because we had to go find food and weapons. That's what we were doin' when her and Daryl found us in the woods."

"Where is it?" Rick asked.

"About twenty miles east of here," Julian said. "Not far at all."

"Alright," Rick nodded. "It's worth looking into."

We piled up into the cars again. I got on the back of Daryl's bike and we took off, leading the way. The sun was beginning to set as the air began to cool off as it whipped my hair around. I held on tight to Daryl as we sped along. We'd been up all night and I felt my eyes begin to get heavy. I laid my head against his back and watched the scenery whiz by us.

We'd left a few cars behind, to keep from having so many vehicles to keep gas in. Julian, Taylor, Beth, Maggie and Glenn piled into my Impala, telling them I refused to leave my car behind. Rick, Lori, Herschel, Carl and T-Dog had gotten into the Hyundai and of course, I'd hopped on the back of Daryl's motorcycle.

After a while, I looked back suddenly when I heard a car honk. Daryl pulled over to the side of the road. He climbed off before offering me his hand to help me off the bike as well.

"What's goin' on?" He asked as Rick approached us. "You out?"

"Runnin' on fumes." Rick said.

"We can't stay here." Lori said.

"We'll make a run for gas in the morning." Rick replied, not looking or acknowledging his wife.

"And spend the night here?" Carol asked.

"I'm freezing." Carl said.

"We'll build a fire." Lori told the boy, rubbing his arms.

"River and I will go get some firewood." Daryl said.

"We can't just sit here with our asses hangin' out." Maggie said.

"Watch your mouth. Everyone stop panicking and listen to Rick." Herschel said.

"Alright, we set up a perimeter. In the morning we'll find some gas and some supplies. We'll keep pushing on." Rick said.

"Glenn and I could make a run right now." Maggie suggested.

"No." Rick said, shaking his head. "We're not splitting up. What if you got stranded?"

"Rick, look around. We're stranded now." Glenn pointed out.

"Look, I know it looks bad. We've been through hell and worse, but at least we found each other." Rick said. "I wasn't sure, I really wasn't. But we're together. We keep it that way. We'll find shelter somewhere. There's gotta be a place. It may be River's parent's house. It may not. We'll make camp tonight over there." He pointed to his right where there were a couple brick walls and a tiny waterfall. "Get on the road at the break of day."

"What if walkers come through here or a group like Randall's?" Beth asked.

"You know, I found Randall, right? He'd turned but he wasn't bit." Daryl said.

"How is that possible?" Beth asked.

"What the hell happened?" Taylor asked.

Rick once again glanced at me, as if I was gonna burst and spill my guts to everyone.

"Shane killed Randall just like he always wanted to." Daryl said.

"And then the herd got him?" Lori asked.

Rick still had his eyes locked on me. I didn't break eye contact; I only hoped my eyes could get the message I wanted him to know across. I wanted him to know I wouldn't say a word to anyone. This was his business. Not mine. I didn't want in it.

"We're all infected." Rick finally said.

I looked at him curiously.

"What?" Daryl said.

"At the CDC, Jenner told me." Rick explained. "Whatever it is, we all carry it."

Daryl had told me about how before they'd broke down on the highway, where they lost Sophia and found the Greene's farm, that they had went to the CDC searching for shelter and answers, only to find neither. But apparently, they did find out some information.

"And you never said anything?" Carol asked.

"Would it have made a difference?" Rick asked.

"You knew this whole time?" Glenn said.

"I wasn't for sure. You saw how crazy that son of a-"

"That's not your call!" Glenn snapped. "When I found out about the walkers in the barn, I told for the good of everyone! Despite a promise I made!" He gestured towards Maggie.

"I thought it was best for everyone." Rick said, defending his actions.

I felt Daryl's hand on my back as I shifted nervously. Rick looked down before he turned and walked away. I watched as Lori passed us, going after her husband.

"C'mon." Daryl said. "Let's go get some firewood."

"We'll go on this side of the road and gather some too." Taylor said, heading in the opposite direction with Julian.

"Hey." Daryl said suddenly just shortly after we entered the woods. "Stop for a sec."

He pulled his red bandana out of his back pocket and grabbed a water bottle from his back pack and poured some over it.

"Let's clean ya up." He said.

He stepped close to me and started to gently rub the wet cloth over my face, wiping the blood and dirt away. I felt myself breathing slightly ragged and a weird feeling pass through me once he got so close to me. It was like there was electricity flowing through my body and the air surrounding us. I wondered if he felt it too. I watched his facial features since he was so close to my face; his ice blue eyes held tenderness and concentration and he bit his bottom lip slightly as he worked.

As he reached my chin, I reached up and grabbed his wrist to stop him. He looked at me curiously. And before he could ask me what I was doing, I made my move before I lost my courage.

I quickly leaned up on my tip toes and locked my lips onto his. I felt him tense up for a moment before finally relaxing into my kiss. He slowly and timidly ran his hand to the back of my head and wound his fingers in my hair. I deepened the kiss and he didn't resist it. Our tongues explored each other's mouths feverishly. I hadn't realized how badly I had wanted this until I felt his lips against mine; they seemed to fit perfectly. It felt so good, so right… like it was my first kiss and the last.

As I pulled away, I was greeted once again by his beautiful blue eyes.

"I really like you, Daryl Dixon." I said.

"I like ya too, River Holden." He said.

"Y'know… back at the farm, when I was surrounded… I was prepared to die. I've accepted it for a long time that my time could be up any minute. But when I realized my gun was out of ammo, and that it was probably the end for me, I suddenly wasn't okay with it. And it wasn't because I was scared. It wasn't because I feared dying, or felt sorry for myself. It was because I couldn't stop thinking about you." I said, looking down at my feet. "I had to get that off my chest. I don't want to die without you knowing how much I like you and how much you mean to me."

I held my breath, waiting for him to say something; anything at all. But nothing came, until I felt his hand on my chin, raising it up. I looked up into his eyes. He leaned in and kissed me.

"Nothin' will happen to ya. Not on my watch." Daryl said. "Listen… I'm no good at this typa stuff. But I do care 'bout ya, Riv. 'nd as more than a friend. As soon as I picked ya up in the woods when ya got shot, I knew there was somethin' 'bout ya. The whole way to tha farm, I couldn't take my eyes off ya. Ya was so perfect."

I smiled at the man in front of me and flung my arms around his neck, pulling him into a tight hug.

"So, are ya bruthers gonna try 'nd kill me now?" He asked.

I laughed and pulled away from him, shaking my head. "No. They really like you. Never seen 'em give me shit for sayin' someone wasn't my boyfriend, normally it was vice versa."

"Good." He said. "Now let's get that firewood. Yer cold as ice."

That night, we sat huddled by the fire we'd sat up around the brick walls. Daryl had brought me a blanket he had stowed in his saddle bag. He sat beside me, feeding the fire. Rick and T-Dog stood watch by the openings in between the walls.

"We're not safe with him." Carol whispered from the other side of Daryl. "Keeping something like that from us. Why do you need him if he's just gonna pull you down?"

"Nah, Rick's done right by me." Daryl said.

"You're his henchmen and I'm a burden." Carol said. "We deserve better."

"Will you shut up with your damn whining? He did what he thought was best. End of story." I snapped at her.

"What do you want?" Daryl asked, placing a hand on my leg.

"A man of honor." Carol answered.

"Rick has honor." Daryl snapped.

Suddenly there was rustling in the woods nearby. Daryl, Glenn, Julian and Taylor jumped to their feet.

"What was that?" Carol asked.

"Could be anything." Daryl said.

"We need to leave. I mean, what are we waiting for?" Carol said.

"The last thing we need is for everyone to be running off in the dark." Rick said. "We don't have the gas and no one is traveling on foot."

"I'm not sitting here and waiting for another herd to blow through." Carol said. "We need to move now."

"No one is going anywhere!" Rick shouted, getting angrier by the second.

"Do something." Carol said.

"He is doing something!" I yelled. "More than you!"

"I'm keeping this group together! Alive!" Rick shouted. "I've been doin' that all along, no matter what! I didn't ask for this! I killed my best friend for you people, for Christ's sake!"

He looked around angrily at everyone.

"You saw what he was like. How he pushed me. How he compromised us. How he threatened us. He staged the whole Randall thing, led me out to put a bullet in my back. He didn't give me no choice! He was my friend… but he came after me. My hands are clean." He said.

He paused once more and looked around the group. No one said a word.

"Maybe you people are better without me. Go ahead. I say there's another place for us, maybe it's just another pipe dream. Maybe I'm foolin' myself again. Why don't you go find out yourself? Send me a postcard! Go on, there's the door. You can do better; let's see how far you get."

Again, he looked around. My eyes were fixed on Carol.

"No takers? Let's get one thing straight… if you're stayin', this isn't a democracy anymore."

With that, he turned and walked through the doorway and out into the night.

"Don't you wanna get going? Y'know… since he has done soooo much wrong?" I said sarcastically to Carol.

"You're sucha smartass, River." Taylor chuckled.

When she folded her arms across her chest and turned away, I glanced over at Daryl.

"You knew he killed Shane, didn't ya?" He asked.

I hung my head. "Yeah. How'd you know?"

"How?" He asked. "And I know ya. It's written all ova yer face and tha way every time it was brought up Rick looked at 'cha."

"I wasn't at the house because I went after Carl. I saw him heading towards the woods. When I caught up with him, we found Rick and Shane, already dead." I explained.

He nodded. "Ya did the right thing by not tellin' anybody."

"Thanks." I said. "It wasn't my place to."

"C'mon." He said, putting a hand on my shoulder and pulling me towards him. "Let's get some sleep."

We arrived at my parent's old home the next afternoon. It was unreal to be standing outside of the large iron gates again. I clutched the gate as I peered through. Besides the overgrown grass, the house looked untouched.

"How do we get in the gate?" Carol asked.

"Generator should still be good." I said. "Got the code."

I walked over to the dial pad and punched in the code I'd become so familiar with. As if magic, the gate began to creak open. I glanced over to Taylor and Julian and gave a wary smile.

"You ready for this?" Daryl asked as he came up beside me and put his hand on the small of my back.

"Ready as I'll ever be." I shrugged.

"Holy shit!" T-Dog said, his voice echoing through the house as we entered.

"How many bedrooms is this?" Carol asked.

"Six." I answered, trying the lamp beside the desk. "And the generator still works! We have electricity people!"

There were cheers from around the room.

"Alright, bedrooms are upstairs, along with most of the bathrooms." I said to everyone. "I call my old one."

"Same here." Taylor said.

"And here." Julian added.

"Kitchen is to the left here, along with the dining room. To the right are the living room and the sunroom. Down the hall is a bathroom and the door to the basement and the wine cellar." I said.

"Wine cellar?" Carol asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Yup, that's exactly where I'm heading once I drop my stuff in my room." I laughed.

As everyone explored the house Julian, Taylor and I once called home and settled in, I headed straight up stairs and to my room; located at the back of the hall to the left. I opened the door and sighed; it was exactly how I left it all those years ago. I'd stumbled and fell in life before; returning to my parent's home to get back on my feet, but the one thing that remained the same in all that time was this room. Even now, at what seemed to be the end of the world, this room was still the same as always.

The walls were a light tan color; the queen sized black metal framed bed laid against the far wall. The wall to the left was partially a built in bookshelf, holding hundreds of books and records; just beside it was the door to my bathroom. My dresser and desk were to my right; pictures of a life long gone sat upon them, along with a laptop, an old typewriter and record player. The walls held posters of bands and such; The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, and even Star Wars. If anyone would've walked into the room without looking closely, it could've easily been mistaken for a boy's room. I heard Taylor's door, next to mine, open up and close quickly behind him.

I finally walked through the threshold and placed my bag on the bed. I took my time organizing my things, gently moving things around, touching things in the room I thought I'd never see again. I felt dazed, as if none of this was real. It couldn't be. Just across the hall was Greyson's room… and Cora's; they would never step in it again. They'd never return home. I fought back tears as I ran a finger across a picture on my dresser; all five of us stood on the beach, smiles as wide as the Mississippi river, happy and huddled together. My eyes lingered on the two faces I would never see again.

I heard footsteps coming up the stairs that broke my concentration. I slipped across the room and into the doorway to see Daryl coming onto the landing.

"Hey." I said timidly.

"Hey." He said, stopping suddenly. "I was jus' comin' up ta find a place ta crash. I dunno…"

"Taylor and Glenn took his old room, Julian and T-Dog are taking his old room, Herschel, Beth and Maggie are in Cora's room, Rick, Lori and Carl are takin' my parent's room, so that leaves Greyson's room for… well, I guess you or Carol." I stopped and looked at my feet before continuing. "If you'd like though… y'know, I've got a queen sized bed…."

His eyes casted down to his feet; he shuffled them nervously before he spoke. "I dunno…."

"It's okay." I shrugged, but really my heart dropped. "If you don't wanna…"

"Nah," He said quickly, shaking his head. "I didn't say that. I jus' dunno how your brother's would.."

He was cut off by Taylor's bedroom door opening up, him and Glenn coming out into the hall.

"Whoa…" He said, stopping suddenly. "Tension in the air. What's up?"

"Nothing," I shot quickly.

He narrowed his eyes, darting them back and forth between us. "You asked him to stay in your room, didn't ya?"

"Oh, for fuck's sake," I mumbled, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Could this get any worse?"

That's the moment that I learned you never say 'could this get any worse'. Julian's door opened up and he came out into the hallway, stopping much like Taylor had, with a curious expression on his face.

"What's up guys?" He asked, looking around.

"River asked Daryl to stay in her room with her." Taylor said bluntly.

"Did I say I did?!" I snapped.

"I'm sorry, Riv. But it's written all over your face." Glenn said, shrugging.

"You were my friend first, Rhee." I said. "Remember that."

"So, what's the problem then?" Julian asked. He looked over at Daryl. "Did you say no?"

"I jus' said I didn't know how…" He cleared his throat. "How y'all would take somethin' like that."

Julian scrunched his eyebrows together as he took in Daryl words. Finally, he laughed. "You think we'd care if ya slept in the room with her? Well, I appreciate the consideration. Much more than I could say for any of her exs, but don't worry, we're okay with it."

He walked up to Daryl and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "But you hurt my sister and I'll kill you."

Taylor chuckled as Julian walked down the stairs. He made his way over to Daryl, followed by Glenn, and stopped.

"What he said, man." Taylor said, motioning towards Julian's retreating form. "But honestly, you hurt her; I'd be more scared of her than us. But if she doesn't get to ya first, then worry about us. Same goes for the Korean, here." He jerked his thumb back indicating towards Glenn. Glenn's eyes widened; it was a well known fact that Daryl made him extremely nervous.

They slipped past Daryl and down the stairs. Once I heard them hit the landing below, I shook my head.

"I'm so sorry. Ignore them." I sighed.

"Nah," He said, walking over to me. "They love ya. Jus' lookin' out for ya is all."

He placed a hand on the doorframe I was leaned against.

I smirked up at him. "Well, in that case, come on in."


End file.
